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Katydid's Poems

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG class="border" src="images/cover.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="589" alt="" /> <p class="caption">Katydid’s Poem</p> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG class="border" src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="534" alt="" /> <p class="caption">Katydid.</p> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG class="border" src="images/titlepage.jpg" width-obs="395" height-obs="600" alt="" /></div> <h1>Katydid’s Poems</h1> <p class="book-description">WITH A LETTER BY<br/> Jno. Aug. Williams.</p> <p class="book-verso"> <span class="smcap">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by</span><br/> MRS. J. I. McKINNEY (“KATYDID”)<br/> <span class="smcap">In the Office of the Librarian at Washington</span>.</p> <p class="book-verso smcap">Printed by the Courier-Journal Job Printing Company.</p> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="book-dedication"> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i004.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="60" alt="" /></div> <p class="book-dedication">Dedicated<br/> TO<br/> J. I. McKINNEY.</p> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">To him whose every word is one of praise,</div> <div class="verse02">Who loves to linger where my thoughts have been,</div> <div class="verse00">And who delights in all my rhyming ways,</div> <div class="verse02">I offer first these efforts of my pen.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i005.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="55" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="smcap no-break">Letter to Katydid.</h2> <p class="smcap no-indent">Dear Katydid:</p> <p>I am more pleased with your lines than when I first read them; they are intensely womanly, natural, musical and sweet—they are absolutely free from affectation, only the restraint of rhyme and measure seem to deprive your muse of perfect freedom and grace. There is also a delicacy of thought and fancy, and of purity of sentiment that pervades the whole like the sweetest perfume.</p> <p>No one can listen to your “Chirpings” and feel like touching the bough from which you sing with a rude, critical hand; he would rather listen through the live-long night to the end of your song.</p> <p>I remember well your first attempt at rhyme while a girl here at school; even then, there was a pleasing promise of a beautiful and useful pen; and I am glad that you have found time and opportunity to improve your early gift. I am glad, too, that you have been persuaded to give some of your sweet little poems to the press; the tender, the true, and the pure of heart will read them with delight.</p> <p class="author1">Affectionately your friend,</p> <p class="author">Jno. Aug. Williams</p> <p class="valediction1 smcap">Daughter’s College,</p> <p class="valediction2">Harrodsburg, Ky.</p> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i006.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="132" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break">CONTENTS</h2> <div class="center"> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> <tr> <td> </td> <td class="tdr">PAGE.</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#To_a_Katydid">To A Katydid</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">7</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Day-Dream">A Day Dream</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">9</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Old_Ravine">The Old Ravine (Illustrated.)</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">11</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Some_Day_Youll_Wish_for_Me">Some Day You’ll Wish For Me</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">12</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#To_Hallie">To Hallie</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">13</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Ive_Asked_You_to_Forget_Me">I’ve Asked You to Forget Me</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">14</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Little_Blanche">Little Blanche</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">15</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Little_Front_Gate">The Little Front Gate</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">16</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Drifting">Drifting</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">16</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Looking_Back">Looking Back</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">17</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Scotta">Scotta</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">18</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Lover_and_Flower">The Lover and Flower</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">20</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#My_Cloud_To_Scotta">My Cloud</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">22</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Decision">The Decision</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">23</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Autumn">Autumn</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">25</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Sisters_Love">A Sister’s Love</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">26</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#In_Memory_of_Fannie_Johnson_White">In Memory of Fannie Johnson White</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">26</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Heliotropes_Soliloquy">The Heliotrope’s Soliloquy</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">27</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Problem">A Problem</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">28</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#My_Palace">My Palace (Illustrated.)</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">29</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Death_of_Summer">Death of Summer</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">33</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Spring_and_Summer">Spring and Summer</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">34</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Under_the_Snow">Under the Snow</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">35</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Prettiest_Girl_in_Town">The Prettiest Girl in Town</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">36</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#I_am_Musing_To-Night">I Am Musing To-night</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">37</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Curl">A Curl</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">38</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Somebodys_Face">Somebody’s Face</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">39</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Good-bye_Maggie">Good-bye, Maggie</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">40</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Hermits_Farewell">The Hermit’s Farewell (Illustrated.)</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">41</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Window_I_Love">A Window I Love</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">43</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Thistle_Down">Thistle Down</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">44</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Bitter_Memories">Bitter Memories</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">45</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#An_Acrostic">An Acrostic</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">46</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#My_Angel_Visitor">My Angel Visitor</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">47</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Keep_a_Bright_Face_Darling">Keep a Bright Face, Darling</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">48</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#My_Neighbors_Mill">My Neighbor’s Mill</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">49</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Dripping_Springs">Dripping Springs</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">51</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#In_Memoriam">In Memoriam</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">53</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Old_Orchard_Trees">The Old Orchard Trees</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">54</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#On_the_Hill-top_Grow_the_Daisies">On the Hill-top Grow the Daisies</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">55</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Ella_Lee">Ella Lee</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">56</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#What_is_the_West_Wind_Saying">What is the West Wind Saying</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">58</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#To_a_Mountain_Stream">To a Mountain Stream</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">59</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Pen_Pictures">Pen Pictures</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">60</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#To_Mother">To Mother</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">62</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Broken_Heart">The Broken Heart</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">63</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Year_Ago">A Year Ago</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">65</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Christmas_Peep">A Christmas Peep</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">66</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Winnies_Christmas_Eve">Winnie’s Christmas Eve</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">68</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#My_Hearts_Little_Room">My Heart’s Little Room</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">69</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Three_Muses">The Three Muses</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">71</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Recollection">A Recollection</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">72</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Dont_Question_Him_Why">Don’t Question Him Why</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">73</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Why">Why?</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">74</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Sunset_Longing">A Sunset Longing</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">74</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Journeys">Journeys</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">76</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Lost_Poem">The Lost Poem</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">78</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Maple_Leaf">A Maple Leaf</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">80</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Gallop_With_Santa_Claus">A Gallop With Santa Claus</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">81</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Home_Memories">Home Memories</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">83</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Sunshine_and_Shadow">Sunshine and Shadow (Illustrated.)</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">85</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Only_a_Fern_Leaf">Only a Fern Leaf</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">87</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Dream">A Dream</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">88</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Those_Soft_Airs_She_Played">Those Soft Airs She Played</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">89</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#To_Albert">To Albert</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">91</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Reunion_of_the_Flowers">The Reunion of the Flowers</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">92</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Children_of_the_Brain">Children of the Brain</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">94</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Lily_of_the_Valley">A Lily of the Valley</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">96</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Lines_to_the_Old_Year">Lines to the Old Year</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">97</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Why_I_Smile">Why I Smile</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">98</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#My_Phantom_Ships">My Phantom Ships</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">99</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Weight_of_a_Word">The Weight of a Word</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">101</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#An_Apology">An Apology</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">103</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Speak_Kindly">Speak Kindly</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">104</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Those_Willing_Hands">Those Willing Hands</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">106</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Look_Into_the_Past">Look Into the Past</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">107</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Little_Face">A Little Face</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">108</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#The_Canary_and_Rose">The Canary and Rose</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">109</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Sigh_or_a_Tear">A Sigh or a Tear</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">110</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#Snow-Flakes">Snow-flakes</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">112</td></tr> <tr> <td class="tdl"><SPAN href="#A_Footprint">A Foot-print</SPAN></td> <td class="tdr">113</td></tr> </table></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_7">[Pg 7]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i008a.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="74" alt="" /></div> <p class="book-midtitle">KATYDID’S POEMS.</p> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i008b.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="106" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="To_a_Katydid">To a Katydid.</h2> <div class="poem2"><div class="stanza"> <div><ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-l.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">L</span>ITTLE</strong> friend among the tree-tops,</div> <div class="verse02">Chanting low your vesper hymns,</div> <div class="verse08">Never tiring,</div> <div class="verse08">Me inspiring,</div> <div class="verse02">Seated ’neath the swaying limbs,</div> <div class="verse00">Do you know your plaintive calling,</div> <div class="verse00">When the summer dew is falling,</div> <div class="verse00">Echoes sweeter through my brain</div> <div class="verse00">Than any soft, harmonic strain?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Others call you an intruder,</div> <div class="verse02">Say discordant notes you know;</div> <div class="verse08">Or that sadness,</div> <div class="verse08">More than gladness,</div> <div class="verse02">From your little heart doth flow;</div> <div class="verse00">And that you awake from sleeping</div> <div class="verse00">Thoughts in quiet they were keeping,</div> <div class="verse00">Faithless love, or ill-laid schemes,</div> <div class="verse00">Hopes unanchored—broken dreams.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">No such phantoms to my vision</div> <div class="verse02">Doth your lullaby impart,</div> <div class="verse08">But sweet faces,</div> <div class="verse08">No tear traces,</div> <div class="verse02">Smile as joyous in my heart,</div> <div class="verse00">As when first at mother’s knee</div> <div class="verse00">Learned I your sweet mystery.</div> <div class="verse00">I defend you with my praises,</div> <div class="verse00">For your song my soul upraises.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_8">[Pg 8]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Do you wonder that at twilight</div> <div class="verse02">Always by my cottage door</div> <div class="verse04">I am seated?</div> <div class="verse04">You’ve repeated</div> <div class="verse02">Oft’ner still those tunes of yore;</div> <div class="verse00">And I love them, love your scanning</div> <div class="verse00">And your noisy tree-top planning;</div> <div class="verse00">Though you struggle with a rhyme,</div> <div class="verse00">In due season comes the chime.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oft I fancy when your neighbors,</div> <div class="verse02">In some secret thicket hid,</div> <div class="verse04">Are debating,</div> <div class="verse04">Underrating</div> <div class="verse02">What that little maiden did,</div> <div class="verse00">That above their clam’rous singing</div> <div class="verse00">I can hear your accents ringing,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a voice that must defend</div> <div class="verse00">From abuse some time-loved friend.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Though the nightingale and swallow</div> <div class="verse02">Through the poet’s measures sing,</div> <div class="verse04">No reflection</div> <div class="verse04">Of dejection</div> <div class="verse02">Petrifies or palls your wing.</div> <div class="verse00">In the calm and holy moonlight,</div> <div class="verse00">On and on with hours of midnight,</div> <div class="verse00">In the darkness, in the rain,</div> <div class="verse00">Still you whisper your refrain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Dream I not of fame or fortune,</div> <div class="verse02">Only this I inward crave,</div> <div class="verse04">Sweet assurance,</div> <div class="verse04">Long endurance,</div> <div class="verse02">Of a love beyond the grave.</div> <div class="verse00">Should my songs die out and perish,</div> <div class="verse00">You’ll my name repeat and cherish;</div> <div class="verse00">Though all trace is lost of me,</div> <div class="verse00">Still you’ll call from tree to tree,</div> </div><div class="stanza"></div> <p class="author smcap">Katydid.</p> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_9">[Pg 9]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i010.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="87" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Day-Dream">A Day-Dream.</h2> <div class="poem2"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span>’M</strong> looking in a mirror, Belle,</div> <div class="verse02">The mirror of our past;</div> <div class="verse00">And many a bright reflection, Belle,</div> <div class="verse02">Into its depth is cast;</div> <div class="verse00">Reflections that are calm and clear,</div> <div class="verse00">And O! to us so very dear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I see a village—old Kirksville—</div> <div class="verse02">Its long and narrow street,</div> <div class="verse00">And as it climbs upon the hill,</div> <div class="verse02">How many friends I meet!</div> <div class="verse00">And, Belle, your face smiles out to me—</div> <div class="verse00">The sweetest face that I can see.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">There is my home hid ’mong the trees</div> <div class="verse02">Back of the village street,</div> <div class="verse00">A welcome rushes on the breeze,</div> <div class="verse02">And restless grow my feet;</div> <div class="verse00">My heart leaps forward, and I view</div> <div class="verse00">The dearest spot I ever knew.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Home! home again! and, children, we</div> <div class="verse02">Skip through the pastures green;</div> <div class="verse00">Your eyes of blue I plainly see—</div> <div class="verse02">“The sweetest ever seen;”</div> <div class="verse00">And on your cheek the rosy tinge;</div> <div class="verse00">And curls of gold your temples fringe.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And see the dogs we used to pet;</div> <div class="verse02">Down through the lawn they run;</div> <div class="verse00">Not many passing by, forget</div> <div class="verse02">Their bark, or fail to shun</div> <div class="verse00">Old Carlo of the greyhound race,</div> <div class="verse00">And Lion with his vicious face.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Yet us they follow to the hedge,</div> <div class="verse02">Where hours with them we’ve played;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_10">[Pg 10]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">And to the pond, along whose edge,</div> <div class="verse02">Barefooted, we would wade.</div> <div class="verse00">Decorum could not cramp the brain,</div> <div class="verse00">And Love unlocked his golden chain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">We climb upon my father’s barn,</div> <div class="verse02">Hide in the straw and hay;</div> <div class="verse00">We watch aunt “Silvy” spinning yarn</div> <div class="verse02">In the old-fashioned way.</div> <div class="verse00">She tells us tales by candle light,</div> <div class="verse00">That fill our hearts with wild delight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A shadow falls; I lose your face;</div> <div class="verse02">Lost is the fairy-tale;</div> <div class="verse00">And just before my eyes I trace</div> <div class="verse02">A kind of airy veil;</div> <div class="verse00">A network that is strangely planned,</div> <div class="verse00">Held by the Present’s cunning hand.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The shadow now has passed away;</div> <div class="verse02">I glance the meshes through,</div> <div class="verse00">And find strange children there at play</div> <div class="verse02">Beside your knee; one, two—</div> <div class="verse00">The little faces both foretell</div> <div class="verse00">A happy future for you, Belle.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Long, long I gaze. That pretty view</div> <div class="verse02">Dissolves away in air,</div> <div class="verse00">And still I’m looking, Belle, for you,</div> <div class="verse02">And still I’m standing there;</div> <div class="verse00">I strive your image to retrace—</div> <div class="verse00">All, all has vanished but my face.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And closing ’round me as before,</div> <div class="verse02">I see a figured wall,</div> <div class="verse00">A carpet blue upon the floor,</div> <div class="verse02">And sunlight over all.</div> <div class="verse00">Bewildered, yet entranced I seem,</div> <div class="verse00">And ’waken from a sweet day-dream.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_11">[Pg 11]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i012a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="79" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Old_Ravine">The Old Ravine.</h2> <div class="wrapfull"> <ANTIMG class="wrapfull" src="images/i012b.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="348" alt="" /></div> <div class="wrap"> <ANTIMG class="wrap" src="images/i012c.jpg" width-obs="206" height-obs="129" alt="" /></div> <div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-j.jpg" width-obs="15" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">J</span>UST</strong> back of my dear old home it rolled,</div> <div class="verse00x">With many a crumpled and rocky fold,</div> <div class="verse00x">Hedged ’round with cherry and locust trees</div> <div class="verse00x">Their strong arms toyed with the breeze—</div> <div class="verse00x">Like knights arrayed for march or fight</div> <div class="verse00x">They stood with waving plumes of white.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And O! that valley’s inmost room</div> <div class="verse00">Was a mass of ivy and violet bloom;</div> <div class="verse00">The larkspur shook from its purple crest</div> <div class="verse00">A dew-drop down on the lily’s breast;</div> <div class="verse00">The blue-bell dozed on the rivulet’s brink,</div> <div class="verse00">And the myrtle leaned o’er the edge to drink.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Even now, as I write, through the open door</div> <div class="verse00">I catch a sound of the cataract’s roar,</div> <div class="verse00">And see the girls just out from school</div> <div class="verse00">Knee-deep in the ravine’s limpid pool;</div> <div class="verse00">And the boys, ah, me! how plain can I see</div> <div class="verse00">Them stealing the bark from the slippery tree.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The door slams back, it is scarce apart;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_12">[Pg 12]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">With steady eye and fluttering heart,</div> <div class="verse00">I watch the girls up the valley turn,</div> <div class="verse00">In search of peppermint and fern;</div> <div class="verse00">And the boys are waving their caps to me,</div> <div class="verse00">As they stand in that ragged and torn old tree.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">In some wild way, I never knew how,</div> <div class="verse00">I climbed to the swing on that elm tree’s bough;</div> <div class="verse00">Was twitt’ring a song as I used to do,</div> <div class="verse00">And counting the clouds in the sky’s soft blue,</div> <div class="verse00">When the girls came out from the valley’s shade,</div> <div class="verse00">And earth into heaven seemed then to fade.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">’Twas the Eden of old, and I was a child</div> <div class="verse00">(I have thought of it since and often have smiled);</div> <div class="verse00">Sitting there in the swing, with the girls at my feet,</div> <div class="verse00">And the boys overhead—my joy was complete;</div> <div class="verse00">What a mockery, then, to awaken and part</div> <div class="verse00">With the happy illusion—how hollow my heart!</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i013.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="110" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Some_Day_Youll_Wish_for_Me">Some Day You’ll Wish for Me. <small><br/> FOR —— ——</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>OME</strong> day, my darling, when the rose has died,</div> <div class="verse02">That on your pathway throws its petals sweet,</div> <div class="verse00">When the sharp thorn is springing near your side</div> <div class="verse02">And nettles pierce the mould beneath your feet,</div> <div class="verse10">You’ll wish for me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Some day, my darling, when the crystal cup</div> <div class="verse02">Of Beauty shattered lies, and spilled its wine;</div> <div class="verse00">When Pleasure’s urn denies your lips one sup,</div> <div class="verse02">And you drink deep of Disappointment’s brine,</div> <div class="verse10">You’ll wish for me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Some day the wreath will wilt upon your head;</div> <div class="verse02">You’ll smell the bud and find a worm within.</div> <div class="verse00">Some day, my darling, when your friends have fled,</div> <div class="verse02">And strangers mock your frequent tears, ah! then</div> <div class="verse10">You’ll wish for me.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13">[Pg 13]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Some day, my darling, when Death’s dews fall cold</div> <div class="verse02">Upon your brow, you’ll gladly let me come—</div> <div class="verse00">When dreams present the shroud that must enfold</div> <div class="verse02">Your limbs, and your sweet lips grow chill and dumb,</div> <div class="verse10">You’ll wish for me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You’ll long for him whose hands were oft denied</div> <div class="verse02">To pluck a rose lest they the bush pollute—</div> <div class="verse00">Yet he would come and stand a slave aside.</div> <div class="verse02">To grasp the bramble and the thorn uproot,</div> <div class="verse10">If you but wished for him.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">He’d kiss your limbs the hidden briar had torn,</div> <div class="verse02">And bathe the wounds with Pity’s saddest tear;</div> <div class="verse00">He’d close your eyes that ne’er till death had worn</div> <div class="verse02">For him one look of love, and at your bier</div> <div class="verse10">He’d kneel and pray</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For strength to watch you hidden from his sight,</div> <div class="verse02">For strength to turn aside and leave you there</div> <div class="verse00">Clasped in the arms of everlasting night;</div> <div class="verse02">And yet, my darling, not as great despair</div> <div class="verse10">He’d feel than now.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i014.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="131" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="To_Hallie">To Hallie. <small><br/> WRITTEN FOR ——</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>AD</strong> and cheerless stands the homestead</div> <div class="verse02">In its grandeur as of old;</div> <div class="verse00">’Tis a casket—lost, the jewel;</div> <div class="verse02">’Tis a mine without its gold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Once a sunbeam at the doorway</div> <div class="verse02">Gilded room and gladdened hall;</div> <div class="verse00">Making life a golden summer,</div> <div class="verse02">Full of joy for each and all.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14">[Pg 14]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But the sunshine that has vanished</div> <div class="verse02">Ne’er can brighten o’er us more,</div> <div class="verse00">Though I bow in meek submission</div> <div class="verse02">Yet my heart is sad and sore.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I have lost my life’s sweet treasure,</div> <div class="verse02">Earth holds nothing dear for me;</div> <div class="verse00">“Upward, onward,” be my motto,</div> <div class="verse02">Onward, upward, still to thee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Hallie! be my guarding angel,</div> <div class="verse02">Teach my footsteps not to stray;</div> <div class="verse00">Spread your sainted wings above me,</div> <div class="verse02">Lead me in “the narrow way,”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So that you can come and meet me—</div> <div class="verse02">Waft me heavenward on your breast,</div> <div class="verse00">“Where the wicked cease from troubling,</div> <div class="verse02">And the weary are at rest.”</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i015.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="72" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Ive_Asked_You_to_Forget_Me">I’ve Asked You to Forget Me.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span>’VE</strong> asked you to forget me,</div> <div class="verse02">To let our happy past</div> <div class="verse00">Ne’er be recalled; for ah! it was</div> <div class="verse02">Too sweet, too bright! to last.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But yet you say that you’re my friend,</div> <div class="verse02">And still as fond and true;</div> <div class="verse00">While I ne’er care to see thy face,</div> <div class="verse02">Or have one thought of you.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then ne’er again recall those days</div> <div class="verse02">When roguish Cupid played</div> <div class="verse00">At twining garlands ’round our hearts</div> <div class="verse02">Only to wilt and fade;</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15">[Pg 15]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For I have with a steady hand,</div> <div class="verse02">Not heeding Love’s sweet art,</div> <div class="verse00">Unwound them from their resting place</div> <div class="verse02">And freed your faithless heart.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i016a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="83" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Little_Blanche">Little Blanche.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-g.jpg" width-obs="22" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">G</span>ATHER</strong> up the broken playthings,</div> <div class="verse02">Scattered on the nursery floor;</div> <div class="verse00">Blanche is gone!—her little fingers</div> <div class="verse02">Ne’er will fondle with them more.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Hide away the dolls, the dishes—</div> <div class="verse02">Precious treasures! O! so dear!</div> <div class="verse00">Lay aside the little dresses—</div> <div class="verse02">In each fold a mother’s tear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">God hath given—God hath taken,</div> <div class="verse02">Though it rends the heart in twain,</div> <div class="verse00">He but sends his frowns upon us,</div> <div class="verse02">To give back his smiles again.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">She hath gone to ’wait your coming,</div> <div class="verse02">Smiling where the angels stand;</div> <div class="verse00">Lingering there at heaven’s gateway,</div> <div class="verse02">That she first may clasp your hand.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i016b.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="114" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16">[Pg 16]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i017a.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="94" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Little_Front_Gate">The Little Front Gate.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span>WAY</strong> from the world and its bustle,</div> <div class="verse02">When the daylight grows pleasant and late;</div> <div class="verse00">In our own cosy cot, I am waiting</div> <div class="verse02">For the slam of the little front gate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The birds at the doorway are singing,</div> <div class="verse02">The roses their beauty debate;</div> <div class="verse00">But I sit here alone, and I listen</div> <div class="verse02">For the slam of the little front gate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Sometimes, ere the shadows of twilight</div> <div class="verse02">Send the roving bird home to its mate,</div> <div class="verse00">I list for a hurrying footstep,</div> <div class="verse02">And the slam of the little front gate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">O! you who are burdened with sorrow,</div> <div class="verse02">And believe that life is but fate,</div> <div class="verse00">Learn from me there is joy in waiting</div> <div class="verse02">For the slam of the little front gate.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i017b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="118" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Drifting">Drifting.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>COTTA</strong>, you are drifting from me,</div> <div class="verse02">O’er the billows of life’s tide;</div> <div class="verse00">You and I have sailed together,</div> <div class="verse02">With our frail barks side by side.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You are drifting with the current,</div> <div class="verse02">But my feeble oar is light,</div> <div class="verse00">Too light to follow; and, in anguish,</div> <div class="verse02">I must watch you drift from sight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Drifting, gliding, moving onward,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17">[Pg 17]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">Tide and sky seem one deep blue;</div> <div class="verse00">All in vain my eyes are yearning,</div> <div class="verse02">You have drifted from my view.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But there’s yet a broader current,</div> <div class="verse02">Where our meeting barks will land;</div> <div class="verse00">You and I still bound together,</div> <div class="verse02">Heart to heart, and hand to hand.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i018.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="84" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Looking_Back">Looking Back.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>HE</strong> opened a little worn package,</div> <div class="verse02">Scarred yellow by Time’s ruthless hand;</div> <div class="verse00">Disclosing a bundle of letters</div> <div class="verse02">Tied up with a pale ribbon band.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“These,” she said, “are like leaves from a fernery,</div> <div class="verse02">Long pressed in a book with a flower;</div> <div class="verse00">And the memories wafted up from them,</div> <div class="verse02">Like perfume that follows a shower.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“With no wormwood or gall in the essence,</div> <div class="verse02">Few tares in life’s garden were sown;</div> <div class="verse00">The clouds partly hiding the sunshine,</div> <div class="verse02">Some weeds with the blossoms have grown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“But we loved”—here she held out a picture;</div> <div class="verse02">A tear-drop was dimming her eye,</div> <div class="verse00">As a cloud will o’ershadow the landscape,</div> <div class="verse02">Or shut out a star in the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I took up a ring and a locket,</div> <div class="verse02">Set deep with a ruby and pearl;</div> <div class="verse00">The clasp was all tarnished and broken,</div> <div class="verse02">And tear-stained the face of the girl,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Whose eyes were awake in Hope’s morning,</div> <div class="verse02">Love kindled their depths with his spark—</div> <div class="verse00">Even then, from the red velvet lining,</div> <div class="verse02">They glowed like a gem in the dark.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18">[Pg 18]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I turned to the sad little figure,</div> <div class="verse02">’Round the package the faded cord tied;</div> <div class="verse00">Pressed my lips to her cheek—ah, how sadly</div> <div class="verse02">The roses had bloomed there and died.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Long we sat in the lingering twilight,</div> <div class="verse02">Looking back o’er the vanishing years;</div> <div class="verse00">She sobbed out her grief on my bosom,</div> <div class="verse02">And moistened my brow with her tears.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">What comfort in words could I offer?</div> <div class="verse02">There was more in a soul-telling glance;</div> <div class="verse00">For each heart hath its season of springtime,</div> <div class="verse02">Each heart hath a buried romance.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i019.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="69" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Scotta">Scotta.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <span class="hide">I</span> Saw her last night in a vision</div> <div class="verse02">(How often she comes when I dream!)</div> <div class="verse00">Through the garden of Heaven she loitered,</div> <div class="verse02">Then stood by a clear, placid stream.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And out of the heart of the river</div> <div class="verse02">A bunch of white lilies she drew,</div> <div class="verse00">I scarce could discern from the blossoms</div> <div class="verse02">Her fingers, so waxen their hue.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But her face wore the same quiet features,</div> <div class="verse02">And her smile was enhancing the light</div> <div class="verse00">That fell on this friend of my bosom,</div> <div class="verse02">This angel robed softly in white.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I longed to reach upward and touch her,</div> <div class="verse02">To ask why the flowers she twined;</div> <div class="verse00">Wondered often for whom was the garland,</div> <div class="verse02">And the crown with the lily buds lined.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19">[Pg 19]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I cried and my voice soared onward</div> <div class="verse02">Farther than sight could extend—</div> <div class="verse00">“For whom are you weaving this chaplet?</div> <div class="verse02">Speak, Scotta! sweet spirit and friend.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“O! tell me just why from the portals</div> <div class="verse02">Of Heaven you’ve wandered away,</div> <div class="verse00">And sit here alone by the river</div> <div class="verse02">Wreathing these lilies to-day.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Her lips parted, as if for an answer—</div> <div class="verse02">Then a cluster of cherubim, came—</div> <div class="verse00">They hovered about this sweet seraph,</div> <div class="verse02">And whispered in concert <i>a name</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It resounded along Heaven’s archway,</div> <div class="verse02">But soft on my ear that word fell,</div> <div class="verse00">Soft as her accents of friendship,</div> <div class="verse02">Soft as a Sabbath eve bell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And the dewdrops and spray of the river</div> <div class="verse02">On the garlands to crystals had turned,</div> <div class="verse00">The crown she embedded with snow-drops,</div> <div class="verse02">One jewel there glittered and burned.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Its luster was brilliant and sunlike,</div> <div class="verse02">As burnished as those in the throne,</div> <div class="verse00">But the name that her own gentle fingers</div> <div class="verse02">Had carved there, ah! me, was—<i>my own</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And what if Life’s thorns pressed my temples</div> <div class="verse02">Or sorrow to midnight turns day,</div> <div class="verse00">I will press on alone through the darkness,</div> <div class="verse02">Believing her hand leads the way.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I will traverse the chill “Swamp of Cypress”</div> <div class="verse02">Where the “Rivers of Death” slowly wind;</div> <div class="verse00">For she’ll beckon me over with garlands,</div> <div class="verse02">And the crown with the lily buds lined.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20">[Pg 20]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i021.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="78" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Lover_and_Flower">The Lover and Flower.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> found it, one day, in a pretty shade</div> <div class="verse02">Which a vine and a maple together made;</div> <div class="verse00">’Twas blooming away in a dress of white,</div> <div class="verse00">With eyes of a blue transparent light.</div> <div class="verse00">I knelt at its shrine,</div> <div class="verse00">And this heart of mine</div> <div class="verse00">Drank in the fragrance as one drinks wine.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then I said, “Sweet flower, this cooling shade</div> <div class="verse00">With the summer weather will dim and fade,</div> <div class="verse00">There’s a place in my heart—a cozy room—</div> <div class="verse00">Where you may nestle and grow and bloom.”</div> <div class="verse00">Thus I wooed the flower,</div> <div class="verse00">In this shady bower,</div> <div class="verse00">And lovers we were that self-same hour.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I carried it home, I pruned it with care,</div> <div class="verse00">I gave it the sun and the morning air.</div> <div class="verse00">The honey bees came its dew to sip,</div> <div class="verse00">But I drove them away with pouting lip;</div> <div class="verse00">For I loved my flower,</div> <div class="verse00">And with jealous power</div> <div class="verse00">I banished the bees from our curtained bower.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A butterfly came on wings of lace,</div> <div class="verse00">And tried to fan my blossom’s face;</div> <div class="verse00">But I brushed it away with cruel hands,</div> <div class="verse00">And tore from its wings the velvet bands;</div> <div class="verse00">Then I kissed my flower;</div> <div class="verse00">But a summer shower</div> <div class="verse00">Burst from the clouds with mesmeric power.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then the pale little blossom heaved a sigh,</div> <div class="verse00">And opened a blue and timid eye</div> <div class="verse00">To thank the cloud as it did in the shade,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21">[Pg 21]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">Which the vine and the maple together made;</div> <div class="verse00">But my heart would rebel;</div> <div class="verse00">I could not quell</div> <div class="verse00">Its raging fire—it seemed from hell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I slammed the shutters with curses of doom;</div> <div class="verse00">I made it dark as a dungeon room,</div> <div class="verse00">Then I hurried away like a thief in the night;</div> <div class="verse00">But I strolled again in the warm sunlight,</div> <div class="verse00">And another flower</div> <div class="verse00">From Fashion’s own bower</div> <div class="verse00">I culled, and nursed it only an hour.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It proved but a weed with a gaudy bloom,</div> <div class="verse00">And a poisonous odor filled my room.</div> <div class="verse00">So I turned once more to my wildwood flower,</div> <div class="verse00">That I locked in my heart that sinful hour,</div> <div class="verse00">When the angel of love,</div> <div class="verse00">To its mansion above,</div> <div class="verse00">Had fluttered away like a wounded dove.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">How softly I turned the key in my heart;</div> <div class="verse00">One moment I faltered—the door swung apart—</div> <div class="verse00">A faint, sweet essence, like heliotrope bloom,</div> <div class="verse00">Was sick’ning my senses; I moved through the room</div> <div class="verse00">With a staggering tread,</div> <div class="verse00">With a brain reeling head,</div> <div class="verse00">And swooned there—<i>a murd’rer</i>—my flower was—<i>dead</i>.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i022.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="143" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22">[Pg 22]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i023.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="81" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="My_Cloud_To_Scotta">My Cloud—To Scotta.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HERE’S</strong> a cloud on my life’s horizon</div> <div class="verse02">Of wonderful shape and hue,</div> <div class="verse00">Like the feathery down of a snow-drift</div> <div class="verse02">’Tis dimpled with changeful blue.</div> <div class="verse00">I gaze on its shadowy outline</div> <div class="verse02">And drink in the calm of the skies,</div> <div class="verse00">Till I fancy it floats out of heaven,</div> <div class="verse02">As an angel in disguise.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">No slumbering storm in its bosom,</div> <div class="verse02">No hint of the lightning’s glare,</div> <div class="verse00">Only a feast for the heart and soul</div> <div class="verse02">Is this treasure of the air;</div> <div class="verse00">For I know from its silvery edges,</div> <div class="verse02">And glimpses of hidden gold,</div> <div class="verse00">That a picture of rare tranquility</div> <div class="verse02">Its tender depths enfold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Else whence is this mystic feeling</div> <div class="verse02">Of peace that’s stealing o’er me?</div> <div class="verse00">Like the magic of summer moonlight</div> <div class="verse02">Enchanting a restless sea.</div> <div class="verse00">O! heavenly cloud! why are you</div> <div class="verse02">So calm? so angelic you seem,</div> <div class="verse00">My spirit escapes in its longing—</div> <div class="verse02">I am lost in a beautiful dream.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Up, up on the wings of a swallow</div> <div class="verse02">Piercing the heaven’s deep blue,</div> <div class="verse00">O’er meadow and mount I am rising,</div> <div class="verse02">And floating, sweet spirit, to you;</div> <div class="verse00">Onward, in trance I am wafted,</div> <div class="verse02">Now into the cloudlet above;</div> <div class="verse00">And a face smiles out from its drapery,</div> <div class="verse02">And ah! ’tis a face that I love.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23">[Pg 23]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i024.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="96" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Decision">The Decision.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> dispute once arose in a bee-hive</div> <div class="verse02">As to which of the little brown bees</div> <div class="verse00">Could gather the sweetest nectar</div> <div class="verse02">From blossoms or budding trees.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The queen tried in vain to discover</div> <div class="verse02">Some method the riot to quell;</div> <div class="verse00">But a challenge for war had been sounded,</div> <div class="verse02">And threatened was each honey cell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So she spoke in a voice most persuasive—</div> <div class="verse02">“He shall sit on my throne for an hour,</div> <div class="verse00">Who brings from the store-house of nature,</div> <div class="verse02">The juice of the sweetest-lipped flower.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Away flew the brown little workers,</div> <div class="verse02">Away out of sight o’er the hill;</div> <div class="verse00">Then backward and forward they flitted,</div> <div class="verse02">The honey-cups eager to fill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">One famished the heart of a lily,</div> <div class="verse02">And drank from its milky bud;</div> <div class="verse00">One opened the vein of a rose leaf,</div> <div class="verse02">And licked up the crimson blood.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">To a poppy-bed still one hurried,</div> <div class="verse02">On a downy cot he crept,</div> <div class="verse00">But all-day in the silken blankets,</div> <div class="verse02">Unconscious there he slept.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Another flew off to the meadow,</div> <div class="verse02">And punctured the daisy’s cap;</div> <div class="verse00">A swarm had encompassed a fountain,</div> <div class="verse02">Where gurgled the sugar-tree sap.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A fourth and a fifth to a mansion</div> <div class="verse02">Had followed a bridal pair;</div> <div class="verse00">One strangled the bud on her bosom,</div> <div class="verse02">One mangled the wreath on her hair.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24">[Pg 24]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But the sixth one paused at a cottage,</div> <div class="verse02">Where a sick girl sleeping lay;</div> <div class="verse00">And there by the open window,</div> <div class="verse02">Blossomed a hyacinth spray.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A youth stood near in the shadows,</div> <div class="verse02">And watching the dreamer’s face,</div> <div class="verse00">A tear rolled down from his eyelid</div> <div class="verse02">And fell on the hyacinth vase.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It was only the work of a moment</div> <div class="verse02">For a busy bee to do,</div> <div class="verse00">To flavor affections tear-drop</div> <div class="verse02">With the extract, “flower-dew.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So he gathered this precious honey,</div> <div class="verse02">And, polishing up his sting,</div> <div class="verse00">He flitted out of the window,</div> <div class="verse02">With gold dust under his wing.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Such a night in the little bee-hive</div> <div class="verse02">Before was never known;</div> <div class="verse00">For the hyacinth’s rich moist pollen</div> <div class="verse02">Had paved the way to the throne.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i025.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="171" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25">[Pg 25]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i026.jpg" width-obs="328" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Autumn">Autumn.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>HO</strong> is it that paints the woodlands</div> <div class="verse02">Like a gorgeous gown of gold;</div> <div class="verse00">Dropping, here and there, a ripple</div> <div class="verse02">Of vermilion in each fold?</div> <div class="verse00">Who is it that calls the robins</div> <div class="verse02">And the blackbirds into bands;</div> <div class="verse00">Pointing them with flaming fingers,</div> <div class="verse02">To the sunny, Southern lands?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">What has scorched the tender blossoms?</div> <div class="verse02">In our yards they’re dying now.</div> <div class="verse00">Do you know who kissed the apple</div> <div class="verse02">Till it reddened on the bough?</div> <div class="verse00">Why so mute the little streamlet?</div> <div class="verse02">Down the hill it used to leap;</div> <div class="verse00">Now I faintly hear it sobbing—</div> <div class="verse02">Sobbing out like one in sleep.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Leaden clouds lay on the heavens,</div> <div class="verse02">Like a burden on the heart;</div> <div class="verse00">And the winds together whisper,</div> <div class="verse02">Sad as loved ones ere they part.</div> <div class="verse00">Then anon a dreamy dullness</div> <div class="verse02">Hovers over sky and earth;</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! my soul reflects the sadness,</div> <div class="verse02">And I seek my friendly hearth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You who love the Indian summer,</div> <div class="verse02">So renowned by pen and art,</div> <div class="verse00">Go, and revel in the gloaming,</div> <div class="verse02">While so sadly pants my heart.</div> <div class="verse00">But I can not watch the leaflets,</div> <div class="verse02">On the whirlwind as they ride,</div> <div class="verse00">For just so a hectic river</div> <div class="verse02">Bore my darling from my side.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26">[Pg 26]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i027a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="122" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Sisters_Love">A Sister’s Love. <small><br/> TO IDA.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>HE</strong> knelt beside her brother’s grave,</div> <div class="verse02">The day was near its close;</div> <div class="verse00">And where the cool, tall grasses wave,</div> <div class="verse02">She lay a fresh-cut rose.</div> <div class="verse00">Then, from a silver waiter near,</div> <div class="verse02">She drew a wreath of white,</div> <div class="verse00">Besprinkled with the twilight’s tear,</div> <div class="verse02">O’ershaded with the night,</div> <div class="verse00">And placed them on the green-kept mound.</div> <div class="verse02">I watched her kneeling there,</div> <div class="verse00">Her face bent on the sacred ground,</div> <div class="verse02">In attitude of prayer;</div> <div class="verse00">And while a bird sang soft his hymn,</div> <div class="verse02">Down-looking from above,</div> <div class="verse00">We saw unveiled a picture dim—</div> <div class="verse02">A statue true of love.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i027b.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="61" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="In_Memory_of_Fannie_Johnson_White">In Memory of Fannie Johnson White.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span>F</strong> I could blend into my verse</div> <div class="verse02">That soft and slumb’rous haze,</div> <div class="verse00">So faintly resting on the rose</div> <div class="verse02">Before the autumn days</div> <div class="verse00">Have chilled its heart, and numbed the leaves,</div> <div class="verse02">And drunk the precious dew,</div> <div class="verse00">Then could I melodize in song,</div> <div class="verse02">Her life so pure and true.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Or could I weave into this song</div> <div class="verse02">Her smile, so rich and rare,</div> <div class="verse00">That found its way to every heart,</div> <div class="verse02">And left its halo there—</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27">[Pg 27]</SPAN></span><div class="verse00">Then earth would not seem desolate,</div> <div class="verse02">Or days be lone or long,</div> <div class="verse00">Since she would sweetly live again</div> <div class="verse02">In verse, and smile in song.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">All this is vain! both pen and voice,</div> <div class="verse02">Too weak to speak her worth;</div> <div class="verse00">Though memory writes in words of gold,</div> <div class="verse02">Her beauteous deeds on earth.</div> <div class="verse00">Heaven claimed our flower—there we may bloom,</div> <div class="verse02">If we the watchword keep:</div> <div class="verse00">“Whatsoever thou shall sow,</div> <div class="verse02">That also thou shall reap.”</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i028.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="152" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Heliotropes_Soliloquy">The Heliotrope’s Soliloquy. <small><br/> TO MRS. T. R. WALTON.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-l.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">L</span>ET</strong> others bring from foreign shore</div> <div class="verse02">The glittering gem, the shining ore,</div> <div class="verse00">Rare trophies from the coral caves,</div> <div class="verse00">And hidden wealth of ocean waves,</div> <div class="verse06">To grace the bridal hall.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You floral queens! You roses white!</div> <div class="verse00">Bathed in the moonbeam’s yellow light,</div> <div class="verse00">You’ll smile in many a quaint design,</div> <div class="verse00">And help the banquet room to line—</div> <div class="verse06">But not the diadem.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">My starry flowers—this purple heath—</div> <div class="verse00">She’ll gather for that trailing wreath;</div> <div class="verse00">For my faint breath of rare perfume</div> <div class="verse00">Is only for the bridal room—</div> <div class="verse06">The bride—the bridal crown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">To watch with me her trembling sigh,</div> <div class="verse00">The golden pansy’s modest eye</div> <div class="verse00">Shall only glance from out my bower,</div> <div class="verse00">With me proclaim the nuptial hour,</div> <div class="verse06">And seal the holy bond.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28">[Pg 28]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i029.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="79" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Problem">A Problem.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-m.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">M</span>Y</strong> heart is perplexed, though I’ve tried to discover</div> <div class="verse02">An answer to solve what it is that I miss,</div> <div class="verse00">Though I’ve questioned myself more that twenty times over,</div> <div class="verse02">There seems no reply to a question like this.</div> <div class="verse00">My friends meet me gladly with words kindly spoken,</div> <div class="verse02">Salutations of praises and sometimes a kiss,</div> <div class="verse00">And looks sent along with a sweet flower token.</div> <div class="verse02">I find in my room—there is something I miss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The blaze up the chimney this evening is talking,</div> <div class="verse02">The wind and the shutter hum sad an old tune,</div> <div class="verse00">A cloud o’er the heavens is leisurely walking,</div> <div class="verse02">A few early snowflakes are vexing the moon.</div> <div class="verse00">Pale Luna! your countenance seemeth too sober,</div> <div class="verse02">But why should I murmur or wonder at this?</div> <div class="verse00">The flame of the woodland died out with October,</div> <div class="verse02">The birds, too, are gone—there is something I miss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I stir down the embers, and here in the firelight</div> <div class="verse02">I read the home paper a late train has brought,</div> <div class="verse00">And into the lives of the absent an insight</div> <div class="verse02">I take; do they ever of me have a thought?</div> <div class="verse00">How strange the words sound when no answer is given,</div> <div class="verse02">Ah! the tone of a friend would to-night insure bliss,</div> <div class="verse00">And the faces of loved ones would seem like a heaven</div> <div class="verse02">Of angels, alas! there is something I miss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Will it always be thus? Is this one missing measure</div> <div class="verse02">To cripple my verse and sadden my song?</div> <div class="verse00">What a joy it is to regain a lost treasure</div> <div class="verse02">And in the heart’s casket the setting make strong.</div> <div class="verse00">But I have grown weary these figures of trying;</div> <div class="verse02">I wonder if others make failures like this?</div> <div class="verse00">A smile? Ah, you solved then the truth underlying</div> <div class="verse02">This problem, and <i>know</i> what it is that I miss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00"><span class="smcap">Madisonville, Ky.</span></div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29">[Pg 29]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i030.jpg" width-obs="397" height-obs="600" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="My_Palace">My Palace.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> built me a little palace,</div> <div class="verse02">Somewhere in the ether land,</div> <div class="verse00">Wherein my soul might revel</div> <div class="verse02">And rest at my command.</div> <div class="verse00">The spot, a royal summit,</div> <div class="verse02">I let my will select,</div> <div class="verse00">And Fancy came inspecting</div> <div class="verse02">With Thought, the architect.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">We went down to the quarry</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30">[Pg 30]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">For the foundation rock,</div> <div class="verse00">And purchased hewn and polished</div> <div class="verse02">Love’s marble corner block.</div> <div class="verse00">For years we toiled together,</div> <div class="verse02">And one day warm and sweet</div> <div class="verse00">I woke and found my palace</div> <div class="verse02">Before me and complete.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It was a gorgeous building—</div> <div class="verse02">The window lights of red</div> <div class="verse00">Came from the sunset’s furnace,</div> <div class="verse02">Or Northern light instead.</div> <div class="verse00">Each peak, each tower and turret</div> <div class="verse02">The sunlight’s love had won,</div> <div class="verse00">And straight there came a voice</div> <div class="verse02">From heaven and said “well done.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I planted a grove beyond it,</div> <div class="verse02">And hedged up the terraced yard,</div> <div class="verse00">And I dug a groove so a brooklet</div> <div class="verse02">Could play on the level sward.</div> <div class="verse00">I wanted a flower to cheer me,</div> <div class="verse02">And off on a breezy slope</div> <div class="verse00">I scattered the seed of roses</div> <div class="verse02">And the purple heliotrope.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I peopled the rooms with volumes</div> <div class="verse02">Of men with talents rare,</div> <div class="verse00">Who climbed upon Fame’s spire</div> <div class="verse02">And waved their banners there.</div> <div class="verse00">I purchased the costliest paintings,</div> <div class="verse02">And swung them from the walls;</div> <div class="verse00">And music, like harps of heaven,</div> <div class="verse02">Resounded throughout the halls.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I gave a royal banquet,</div> <div class="verse02">The nuptial feast was spread,</div> <div class="verse00">And then, when all was ready,</div> <div class="verse02">There Love and I were wed.</div> <div class="verse00">But when the guests departed,</div> <div class="verse02">A rap came on the door,</div> <div class="verse00">And a gaunt figure faced me</div> <div class="verse02">I ne’er had seen before.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31">[Pg 31]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“My name,” she said, “is Envy;</div> <div class="verse02">I wish to stop with you;</div> <div class="verse00">Your dwelling just completed,</div> <div class="verse02">The inmates must be few.”</div> <div class="verse00">Her breath, like fumes of sulphur,</div> <div class="verse02">Into my face was blown,</div> <div class="verse00">And like a demon’s curses</div> <div class="verse02">Was her departing tone.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The night came on, and fingers</div> <div class="verse02">Tapped on the beveled glass,</div> <div class="verse00">A face looked in the window</div> <div class="verse02">With eyes that shone like brass;</div> <div class="verse00">But Love beheld the visage,</div> <div class="verse02">And o’er the window drew</div> <div class="verse00">A shade that shut Suspicion</div> <div class="verse02">Forever from my view.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And then a pond’rous knocking</div> <div class="verse02">Bombarded at the door,</div> <div class="verse00">And like an earthquake’s tremor</div> <div class="verse02">Upheaved the palace floor.</div> <div class="verse00">I glanced into the key-hole,</div> <div class="verse02">And, like the brand of Cain,</div> <div class="verse00">I saw on Slander’s forehead</div> <div class="verse02">A dark and bloody stain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I barred the palace entrance,</div> <div class="verse02">And turning in the hall</div> <div class="verse00">We faced another figure</div> <div class="verse02">More dreadful than them all;</div> <div class="verse00">He said: “My name is Ruin—</div> <div class="verse02">Unbidden here I stand,</div> <div class="verse00">To curse your happy homestead</div> <div class="verse02">And desolate your land.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“The lichen I have sprinkled</div> <div class="verse02">Upon your crumbling tower,</div> <div class="verse00">The ivy and the myrtle</div> <div class="verse02">Shall choke each blooming flower.”</div> <div class="verse00">And then he smote the castle,</div> <div class="verse02">It trembled to its base,</div> <div class="verse00">And fell? No, no—I shouted</div> <div class="verse02">And laughed out in his face:</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32">[Pg 32]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“You can not wreck our palace,</div> <div class="verse02">Love is the corner stone,</div> <div class="verse00">And we are master workmen,”</div> <div class="verse02">I said, in jocund tone.</div> <div class="verse00">He seized his trailing garments,</div> <div class="verse02">Departed with a groan,</div> <div class="verse00">And love and I together</div> <div class="verse02">Were once more left alone.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Next day as they debated</div> <div class="verse02">What course to next pursue,</div> <div class="verse00">I heard a sweet voice calling—</div> <div class="verse02">Love said the tone he knew.</div> <div class="verse00">The step, low as a mother’s</div> <div class="verse02">Upon the nursery floor,</div> <div class="verse00">Was like advancing music</div> <div class="verse02">That halted at our door.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">As when a fairy’s castle</div> <div class="verse02">Yields to a magic key,</div> <div class="verse00">Our door swung on the hinges</div> <div class="verse02">The guest was—<i>Sympathy</i>.</div> <div class="verse00">“Come in, our worthy sister,”</div> <div class="verse02">I heard Love then repeat;</div> <div class="verse00">“For happiness without you</div> <div class="verse02">Could never be complete.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And while we sat together,</div> <div class="verse02">Weaving our garland sweet,</div> <div class="verse00">For many a bridal altar,</div> <div class="verse02">For many a burial sheet,</div> <div class="verse00">We heard another footstep;</div> <div class="verse02">And, like an angel sent,</div> <div class="verse00">There came and smiled upon us</div> <div class="verse02">The face we loved—<i>Content</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The circle was completed—</div> <div class="verse02">My palace stands sublime</div> <div class="verse00">Still on that cloudland summit,</div> <div class="verse02">And laughs at threats of Time.</div> <div class="verse00">No curses thunder o’er us,</div> <div class="verse02">No heavy rains can fall;</div> <div class="verse00">For heaven’s open window</div> <div class="verse02">Slants sunshine over all.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33">[Pg 33]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i034.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="71" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Death_of_Summer">Death of Summer.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>UMMER’S</strong> dying, close the shutters,</div> <div class="verse02">Make the light subdued and sweet,</div> <div class="verse00">The last accent that she utters</div> <div class="verse02">I’ll record here at her feet.</div> <div class="verse00">See, the pulses quiver faintly,</div> <div class="verse02">But her heart, alas! ’tis still;</div> <div class="verse00">See how pale she lies and saintly,</div> <div class="verse02">Feel her hands, they’re white and chill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Close the eyes made sad from weeping,</div> <div class="verse02">Smooth the tangles from her head,</div> <div class="verse00">Leave her like an angel sleeping,</div> <div class="verse02">Friends are here to view the dead.</div> <div class="verse00">See, the rose a tear is dropping</div> <div class="verse02">As she leans above her face,</div> <div class="verse00">At the door the lily stopping,</div> <div class="verse02">Finds her handkerchief of lace.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">There the two like sisters sorrow,</div> <div class="verse02">As above the corse they bend,</div> <div class="verse00">Planning for the sad to-morrow—</div> <div class="verse02">For the burial of a friend.</div> <div class="verse00">Then the daisy from the mountain,</div> <div class="verse02">That in mourning shawl was dressed,</div> <div class="verse00">Brought a snowdrow from the fountain,</div> <div class="verse02">Lay it on the summer’s breast.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">To the pillow crept the lilacs,</div> <div class="verse02">But the flowers at her throat</div> <div class="verse00">Were the heliotrope and smilax—</div> <div class="verse02">This was gained by casting vote—</div> <div class="verse00">And the jasmine sought her fingers,</div> <div class="verse02">While the fuschias kissed her hair;</div> <div class="verse00">At her lip a violet lingers</div> <div class="verse02">To deny them, who would dare?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then the autumn’s sunny treasure</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34">[Pg 34]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">Came the sturdy golden rod,</div> <div class="verse00">For the coffin took the measure,</div> <div class="verse02">For the grave removed the sod.</div> <div class="verse00">Long and mournful the procession</div> <div class="verse02">That I watched across the hill,</div> <div class="verse00">For to you I’ll make confession,</div> <div class="verse02">Autumn doth my spirit kill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Drives me from the scene of sadness</div> <div class="verse02">While on poison nature feeds;</div> <div class="verse00">Decks her out in robes of gladness</div> <div class="verse02">To conceal the heart that bleeds;</div> <div class="verse00">At the summer’s grave there lingers</div> <div class="verse02">None more sad to drop a tear</div> <div class="verse00">Than the friend whose trembling fingers</div> <div class="verse02">Write this in memoriam here.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i035a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="73" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Spring_and_Summer">Spring and Summer.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> heard a footstep on the hill,</div> <div class="verse02">The little brook began to trill,</div> <div class="verse00">I looked—a sweet and childlike face,</div> <div class="verse00">Reflected like a blooming vase,</div> <div class="verse00">Was smiling from the water clear,</div> <div class="verse00">With buttercups behind her ear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A flock of swallows hove in sight,</div> <div class="verse00">On came the summer clad in white,</div> <div class="verse00">With sunshine falling from her hair</div> <div class="verse00">Upon her shoulders white and bare,</div> <div class="verse00">And pressing through the tangled grass,</div> <div class="verse00">A daisy rose to watch her pass.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i035b.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="76" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35">[Pg 35]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i036.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="81" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Under_the_Snow">Under the Snow.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>HAT</strong> have you hidden down under the snow,</div> <div class="verse02">So dear that you weep when the northern blasts blow?</div> <div class="verse00">Why your face pressed to the cold window pane,</div> <div class="verse00">Longing to mingle your tears with the rain—</div> <div class="verse04">Is there something down under the snow?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Is it only a blossom, a summer’s delight,</div> <div class="verse00">That is freezing and dying this cold, bitter night?</div> <div class="verse00">That is only a fancy, the floweret is warm,</div> <div class="verse00">And the drift has enfolded it safe from the storm—</div> <div class="verse04">Is there something yet under the snow?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Something near to the heart down under the snow,</div> <div class="verse00">That has robbed the wan cheek of its once carmine glow,</div> <div class="verse00">That has stolen the beam of the eye—tears instead</div> <div class="verse00">Bespeak how in anguish the sore heart hath bled</div> <div class="verse04">For a little child under the snow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For a dear little prattler that littered the floor,</div> <div class="verse00">And laughed as he tumbled your work o’er and o’er</div> <div class="verse00">For a little gold head that made sunny the room,</div> <div class="verse00">Now bright’ning the darkness and chill of the tomb,</div> <div class="verse04">That is dreaming out under the snow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Only resting awhile in garments all white,</div> <div class="verse00">Away from the blackness and sin of to-night;</div> <div class="verse00">Away from the vice and the wrong of the street,</div> <div class="verse00">Not heeding the song of the rain or the sleet,</div> <div class="verse04">Still sleeping down under the snow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">How many a mother her darling would lay</div> <div class="verse00">In the last, narrow home—hide her treasure away—</div> <div class="verse00">If only to know its soul was at rest</div> <div class="verse00">With an innocent heart in an innocent breast,</div> <div class="verse04">Far, far down under the snow!</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36">[Pg 36]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i037a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="69" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Prettiest_Girl_in_Town">The Prettiest Girl in Town.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-h.jpg" width-obs="24" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">H</span>AVE</strong> you e’er seen her, this beautiful girl</div> <div class="verse02">With that classical head and complexion of pearl?</div> <div class="verse00">So pale and enchanting that sometimes I deem</div> <div class="verse00">Her a sweet revelation as when in a dream,</div> <div class="verse00">Through wild variations of trouble and fear,</div> <div class="verse00">You suddenly feel that an angel is near.</div> <div class="verse00">Now guess, if you can, without half of that frown,</div> <div class="verse00">For to me she’s the prettiest girl in the town.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The poets all sing of these quaint Highland girls</div> <div class="verse00">With enchanting dimples and loose tangled curls;</div> <div class="verse00">Or they weave a love-tale from her budding lip’s glow</div> <div class="verse00">While chasing the reindeer o’er mountains of snow;</div> <div class="verse00">This is only the skill of a well tinctured pen,</div> <div class="verse00">Dipped in Romance’s cup for the praises of men,</div> <div class="verse00">Who value this maid in the coarse homespun gown</div> <div class="verse00">Something less than the prettiest girl in the town.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You must all have watched the calm light of her eyes,</div> <div class="verse00">And ethereal figure with heavy drawn sighs;</div> <div class="verse00">Pondered often in secret of some magic gift</div> <div class="verse00">To win you this face—so like a snowdrift—</div> <div class="verse00">I would whisper a secret: On Valentine’s day,</div> <div class="verse00">With Cupid commune in a sly, cunning way,</div> <div class="verse00">Else only in dreams she is thine; for a crown</div> <div class="verse00">Could not purchase the prettiest girl in the town.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i037b.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="92" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37">[Pg 37]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i038.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="59" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="I_am_Musing_To-Night">I am Musing To-Night.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> am musing to-night in the fire-light’s glow,</div> <div class="verse02">And watching the pictures that come and go;</div> <div class="verse00">Like dissolving views on a magic screen</div> <div class="verse00">Is the witchery of this changing scene;</div> <div class="verse00">Though half I’m dreaming, though half awake,</div> <div class="verse00">I fear to move lest the spell I break,</div> <div class="verse00">Lest my fairy castles will break and fall,</div> <div class="verse00">And down will tumble each beautiful wall.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Thus still in a stupor I sit and gaze</div> <div class="verse00">At the glowing embers and wanton blaze;</div> <div class="verse00">I am smiling at Fancy; she tries in vain</div> <div class="verse00">To lure me along with the mad’ning train</div> <div class="verse00">That follow her footsteps—that to her cling,</div> <div class="verse00">As flowers that garland the steps of spring;</div> <div class="verse00">In moody silence I sit apart,</div> <div class="verse00">Till memory conquers my sullen heart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Sweet Memory! sprite of my golden past!</div> <div class="verse00">Your tinseled veil o’er me is cast;</div> <div class="verse00">Subdued I yield like one enchained,</div> <div class="verse00">And yet my freedom is only feigned;</div> <div class="verse00">Back through the aisles of years that are gone,</div> <div class="verse00">A willing captive you lead me on,</div> <div class="verse00">Where I gleaned unbidden the joys of youth</div> <div class="verse00">While the world was blossoming with love and truth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Before my heart could interpret a sigh,</div> <div class="verse00">Or a tear-drop’s shadow creep into my eye,</div> <div class="verse00">Ere I’d missed from the circle of friendship’s chain</div> <div class="verse00">The link once lost that we ne’er regain,</div> <div class="verse00">The future to me was a vast expanse,</div> <div class="verse00">Its depth I could solve at a single glance,</div> <div class="verse00">Knew not of the troubles that torture the soul</div> <div class="verse00">Hidden away in its sober fold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Yet, to-night, as I dream in the gathering gloom,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38">[Pg 38]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">Only friends that are dear softly enter my room,</div> <div class="verse00">Those who gladdened my life in its season of pain,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a gleam of the sunshine along with the rain;</div> <div class="verse00">These, <i>these</i> are the guests that encircle my hearth,</div> <div class="verse00">Who come gliding like spirits back to the earth.</div> <div class="verse00">What communion we hold only those ever know</div> <div class="verse00">Who sit musing alone in the fire-light’s glow.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i039.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="75" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Curl">A Curl.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>O-NIGHT</strong>, as I turned back the pages</div> <div class="verse02">Of a book Time had fingered before,</div> <div class="verse00">And whose leaves held the odor of ages,</div> <div class="verse02">And the imprints of much usage wore,</div> <div class="verse00">A little brown curl I discovered,</div> <div class="verse02">That fell from the book to the floor.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Had I sinned? Heaven grant me its pardon.</div> <div class="verse02">Did a lover’s sad tear the page spot?</div> <div class="verse00">Who pressed there that gem of the garden—</div> <div class="verse02">The sweet flower, “forget-me-not?”</div> <div class="verse00">It lay as if carved on a grave-stone,</div> <div class="verse02">And all of its sweetness forgot.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I held the curl up to the lamplight,</div> <div class="verse02">And watching the gleam of its gold,</div> <div class="verse00">There I heard with the rush of the midnight,</div> <div class="verse02">A sad little story it told;</div> <div class="verse00">But I promised the sacred old volume</div> <div class="verse02">Its secret I would not unfold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But I would that the world knew its sorrow,</div> <div class="verse02">The story I must not reveal;</div> <div class="verse00">But go to your book case to-morrow.</div> <div class="verse02">And each to your own heart appeal;</div> <div class="verse00">And you’ll know why the tattered old volume</div> <div class="verse02">The little curl tries to conceal.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39">[Pg 39]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i040.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="136" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Somebodys_Face">Somebody’s Face. <small><br/> TO M. A. B.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HE</strong> blossoms are gone from the garden,</div> <div class="verse02">But ’tis not of them I would speak;</div> <div class="verse00">I want a sweet rose for my verses</div> <div class="verse02">Like one that’s in somebody’s cheek.</div> <div class="verse00">A red rose to kiss and to fondle,</div> <div class="verse02">Whose leaves will not wither or die—</div> <div class="verse00">To gladden each moment and banish</div> <div class="verse02">The winter thoughts out of the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I want a low ripple of music</div> <div class="verse02">To flow through these lines of my choice,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a zephyr that moved through the summer,</div> <div class="verse02">Now dwelling in somebody’s voice;</div> <div class="verse00">A song that will be full of fragrance</div> <div class="verse02">So sweet that its magic of words</div> <div class="verse00">Will bring back the balm of the June time,</div> <div class="verse02">Its memories glad, and the birds.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The skies are so sunless and dreary,</div> <div class="verse02">Unless I can find a deep blue</div> <div class="verse00">To mix with the clouds of November</div> <div class="verse02">They’ll still wear the dark, sober hue;</div> <div class="verse00">But memory shows a bright heaven</div> <div class="verse02">Reflected in somebody’s eye,</div> <div class="verse00">And, thinking to-day of its beauty,</div> <div class="verse02">The grey becomes blue in the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">My dear little friend of the summer,</div> <div class="verse02">Did you think in the meshes of song</div> <div class="verse00">Your sweet, rosy face would be tangled</div> <div class="verse02">By a memory cunning and strong?</div> <div class="verse00">That the eyes looking now on this pattern</div> <div class="verse02">Would find it so easy to trace?</div> <div class="verse00">And delight as I do in its beauty—</div> <div class="verse02">The beauty of somebody’s face?</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40">[Pg 40]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i041.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="77" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Good-bye_Maggie">Good-bye, Maggie.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-g.jpg" width-obs="22" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">G</span>OOD-BYE</strong>, Maggie, I must leave you,</div> <div class="verse02">Far away from you I roam,</div> <div class="verse00">Far away from friends and loved ones,</div> <div class="verse02">And your pretty cottage home.</div> <div class="verse00">O’er my soul a twilight gathers,</div> <div class="verse02">That is deep’ning into night,</div> <div class="verse00">But from out the shadowy distance</div> <div class="verse02">Shines a soft, familiar light.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It is memory’s beacon lantern,</div> <div class="verse02">O’er it arching is your name;</div> <div class="verse00">Round it recollections cluster,</div> <div class="verse02">As the moth about the flame.</div> <div class="verse00">Though the future tries to cheat us,</div> <div class="verse02">Throwing many miles between,</div> <div class="verse00">Brighter burns the little taper</div> <div class="verse02">As the distance intervenes.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Good-bye, Maggie, will you miss me?</div> <div class="verse02">Absence conquers many a heart,</div> <div class="verse00">Plucks the roses from the garland,</div> <div class="verse02">Tears the evergreen apart;</div> <div class="verse00">Enters at the open lattice,</div> <div class="verse02">As a guest unbidden not,</div> <div class="verse00">Draws the curtain o’er the window,</div> <div class="verse02">Writes upon the door—“Forgot.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! what mean these idle sayings,</div> <div class="verse02">And whence come these idle fears?</div> <div class="verse00">As I fold you to my bosom</div> <div class="verse02">On my face I feel your tears;</div> <div class="verse00">Tears—they are a silent language</div> <div class="verse02">That interpret best the heart,</div> <div class="verse00">And I love you for them, darling—</div> <div class="verse02">Good-bye, Maggie, we must part.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41">[Pg 41]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i042a.jpg" width-obs="325" height-obs="51" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Hermits_Farewell">The Hermit’s Farewell.</h2> <div class="wrapfull"> <ANTIMG class="wrapfull" src="images/i042b.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="271" alt="" /></div> <div class="wrap"> <ANTIMG class="wrap" src="images/i042c.jpg" width-obs="240" height-obs="156" alt="" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-f.jpg" width-obs="20" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">F</span>AREWELL</strong>, that sad and bitter word</div> <div class="verse00x">It stirs my soul to-night,</div> <div class="verse00x">As I sit crouching in my cave</div> <div class="verse00x">Above the faggot’s light;</div> <div class="verse00x">Strange, ghostly figures dance and flit</div> <div class="verse00x">Along the cold, damp walls;</div> <div class="verse00x">The black snake glares his drowsy eyes,</div> <div class="verse00x">And from his dungeon crawls.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The toad croaks near my humble fire,</div> <div class="verse02">Is loth to hop away,</div> <div class="verse00">And knows that ne’er again for him</div> <div class="verse02">Will I in ambush lay;</div> <div class="verse00">The bats flit idly to and fro,</div> <div class="verse02">The mice romp through my cell,</div> <div class="verse00">And e’en the wind that moans without</div> <div class="verse02">Repeats that word—farewell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I move, and think ’tis some weird dream</div> <div class="verse02">Then mutter “’tis my brain;”</div> <div class="verse00">For here around my throbbing brow</div> <div class="verse02">Seems clamped a heavy chain,</div> <div class="verse00">And like a prisoner doomed to die</div> <div class="verse02">To-morrow at the stake,</div> <div class="verse00">I count the hours as they fly,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42">[Pg 42]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">And dread the morning’s break.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For friends will come to lead me forth,</div> <div class="verse02">Through frescoed hall and room,</div> <div class="verse00">To homes where kindred ties await;</div> <div class="verse02">I fear the hermit’s doom.</div> <div class="verse00">They’ve tempted me—I fain would rest</div> <div class="verse02">Here on the dungeon mould,</div> <div class="verse00">Than dream on beds where curtains swing</div> <div class="verse02">With sunbeams in each fold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For beasts and birds and creeping things</div> <div class="verse02">Have owned me as their guest,</div> <div class="verse00">When man would turn me from his door</div> <div class="verse02">With cruel word or jest;</div> <div class="verse00">And as I served my scanty meal,</div> <div class="verse02">In supplicating lays,</div> <div class="verse00">The cricket and the katydid</div> <div class="verse02">Would join my evening praise.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">God pitied me, my loneliness</div> <div class="verse02">He made a sweet content;</div> <div class="verse00">I found companions in the stars</div> <div class="verse02">That from the heavens bent;</div> <div class="verse00">His flowers were friends, the golden rod</div> <div class="verse02">Smiled in its yellow hood,</div> <div class="verse00">A sentinel about my door</div> <div class="verse02">The purple thistle stood.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But look! the morning’s amber hue</div> <div class="verse02">Steals on the Easter skies,</div> <div class="verse00">Farewell! farewell! when Death has closed</div> <div class="verse02">These dim and longing eyes,</div> <div class="verse00">In peace to slumber here entombed,</div> <div class="verse02">Will be the boon I crave,</div> <div class="verse00">And those who spurned The Hermit’s home</div> <div class="verse02">Shall shun The Hermit’s grave.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43">[Pg 43]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i044.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="72" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Window_I_Love">A Window I Love.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HERE’S</strong> an old-fashioned building somewhere in the town</div> <div class="verse02">That looks on a noisy street,</div> <div class="verse00">And no matter how often I pass up and down,</div> <div class="verse02">At the window sweet faces I meet.</div> <div class="verse00">Little faces that lit’rally beam on the street,</div> <div class="verse02">Untutored in Life’s trying school,</div> <div class="verse00">That seem fashioned, my friends, as if just to repeat</div> <div class="verse02">For our lesson the sweet, golden rule.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oft they give us a smile, when a frown we return</div> <div class="verse02">A kiss prompts the pout of their lip,</div> <div class="verse00">And though we go by with a step proud and stern,</div> <div class="verse02">How lightly beside us they trip!</div> <div class="verse00">Catching the leaves that drift in at the door,</div> <div class="verse02">Those pretty leaves rusted with rain,</div> <div class="verse00">That sigh with our hearts when the summer is o’er,</div> <div class="verse02">And that seem to wear traces of pain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">There is many a window with drapings of lace,</div> <div class="verse02">Where the clematis bloom is entwined,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the moss seems a part of the urn and the vase,</div> <div class="verse02">Where the awning with satin is lined,</div> <div class="verse00">Where Wealth sits aloof—garments dripping with pearls</div> <div class="verse02">Like a Mermaid’s—sole god of the sphere,</div> <div class="verse00">But the faces I love with their billows of curls</div> <div class="verse02">You must ne’er think of looking for here.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For the window I love has no hangings of plush,</div> <div class="verse02">Neither festooned as if for display,</div> <div class="verse00">And yet I have seen it at evening’s soft hush</div> <div class="verse02">Decked out in a wond’rous array</div> <div class="verse00">Of cambrics and calicoes, sashes and curls,</div> <div class="verse02">Little aprons and many a toy—</div> <div class="verse00">More plainly to speak—there are three little girls,</div> <div class="verse02">And the king of the house is a boy.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">How I love to halt here! With a satisfied look,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44">[Pg 44]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">I have watched Corinne smoothing a curl,</div> <div class="verse00">I have seen little Richard lean over his book,</div> <div class="verse02">I have heard Mary singing with Pearl.</div> <div class="verse00">And O! I have thanked them again and again</div> <div class="verse02">For the problems of patience and love</div> <div class="verse00">That they solve unawares for my less practiced brain</div> <div class="verse02">When I pause by the window I love.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Richmond, Ky.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i045.jpg" width-obs="350" height-obs="84" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Thistle_Down">Thistle Down.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> saw a little child one day</div> <div class="verse02">Blowing some thistle down away.</div> <div class="verse00">How light they flew! The wings of thought</div> <div class="verse00">Grew weary as their course was sought,</div> <div class="verse00">And e’en the boy, with heart as light,</div> <div class="verse00">Sighed when he failed to trace their flight;</div> <div class="verse00">But as by chance, out of the air,</div> <div class="verse00">One fell upon his sunny hair.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I saw the tiny sail unfurl,</div> <div class="verse00">And faintly fan a slender curl.</div> <div class="verse00">A fairy’s boat it seemed to be,</div> <div class="verse00">And yet a pirate sailed the sea,</div> <div class="verse00">And anchored on a golden wave</div> <div class="verse00">That hid no evil deed—no grave.</div> <div class="verse00">That thought! Did Heaven foresee the doom?</div> <div class="verse00">From off his curl I shook the bloom.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I know not where it chanced to fall,</div> <div class="verse00">In garden, park, or castle wall;</div> <div class="verse00">A desert’s sand may scorch its root,</div> <div class="verse00">A crystal brook it may pollute;</div> <div class="verse00">A different course from mine it took,</div> <div class="verse00">And I the path at once forsook.</div> <div class="verse00">I only know that summer day,</div> <div class="verse00">Far from the child ’twas blown away.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_45">[Pg 45]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i046.jpg" width-obs="350" height-obs="127" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Bitter_Memories">Bitter Memories. <small><br/> TO REV. H. T. WILSON.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> picture is haunting my memory to-night,</div> <div class="verse02">While I dose in the warmth of an early fire-light.</div> <div class="verse00">As we strive to remove from the soul an old strain,</div> <div class="verse00">Thus the outline I’ve tried to erase from my brain;</div> <div class="verse00">But a specter stands near with sepulchral face.</div> <div class="verse00">And over my hearthstone the same scene doth trace—</div> <div class="verse00">She colors the landscape and scoffs at my tears,</div> <div class="verse00">As I gaze on the wreck of scarce twenty-one years.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">’Twas the home of my boyhood. In ruins it stood,</div> <div class="verse00">And autumn had saddened the meadow and wood;</div> <div class="verse00">The old locust grove, where the crows used to build,</div> <div class="verse00">The plowshare and harrow together had tilled.</div> <div class="verse00">Not a sprig of broomsedge did the hillside adorn,</div> <div class="verse00">But here and there stacked was the newly shocked corn.</div> <div class="verse00">Not a wild flower bloomed—through my heart ran a chill,</div> <div class="verse00">As I bowed by the spring at the foot of the hill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">No trickle of water fell soft on my ear—</div> <div class="verse00">Unless ’twas the sound of a swift falling tear—</div> <div class="verse00">For Time in his raving had paused here to drink,</div> <div class="verse00">And I found only dregs as I gasped on the brink.</div> <div class="verse00">Long I stood, and I gazed like one in a trance,</div> <div class="verse00">And I shuddered as toward me the specter advanced;</div> <div class="verse00">Did the chill of her hand then my heart penetrate?</div> <div class="verse00">Dead, it seemed, as I leaned on the old garden gate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Where the sweet-william bloomed on the old fashioned walk,</div> <div class="verse00">Towered and flourished the rank mullein stalk,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the raspberry vines purpled over the fence,</div> <div class="verse00">The iron weed stood just as proud as a prince;</div> <div class="verse00">But where was the summer-house under whose shade</div> <div class="verse00">I had gathered the grapes and my sisters had played?</div> <div class="verse00">“Where, oh! where,” I exclaimed (too unnerved then to fear),</div> <div class="verse00">“Are the joys of my youth?” “Gone,” was hissed in my ear.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46">[Pg 46]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">As the blind lead the blind it seemed I was lead</div> <div class="verse00">Over stubble and thorns till my feet ached and bled.</div> <div class="verse00">Then we stood by a door that had rotted apart—</div> <div class="verse00">Here the thistle had broken its soft, downy heart—</div> <div class="verse00">I glanced toward the mantel, an owl hooted there,</div> <div class="verse00">And a rat made its nest in my mother’s old chair,</div> <div class="verse00">“Oh! God,” I repeated, “’tis too hard to bear,”</div> <div class="verse00">And I knelt on the threshold in low, fervent prayer.</div> <div class="verse00"><span class="spread">* * * * * </span></div> <div class="verse00">“Why, papa,” a little voice called soft and clear,</div> <div class="verse00">As she climbed on my knee and kissed off a tear,</div> <div class="verse00">“What a long nap you’ve had; why mamma’s at tea,</div> <div class="verse00">Now, papa, wake up and come on with me.”</div> <div class="verse00">“My darling!” I whispered, and pressed to my face</div> <div class="verse00">A cheek that was soft as a billow of lace.</div> <div class="verse00">“What if the old home can not weather the storms</div> <div class="verse00">When a foretaste of Heaven I hold in my arms.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">September 7, 1885.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i047.jpg" width-obs="350" height-obs="88" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="An_Acrostic">An Acrostic.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-d.jpg" width-obs="24" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">D</span>AUGHTERS</strong>’ college! Muse, come nearer,</div> <div class="verse02">And assist my feeble rhyme.</div> <div class="verse00">Undertaking nothing dearer,</div> <div class="verse02">Greater, nothing showeth time.</div> <div class="verse00">Here’s the spot where you, awaking,</div> <div class="verse02">Taught my infant mind to think;</div> <div class="verse00">Even as the morning breaking,</div> <div class="verse02">Richer grows to red from pink.</div> <div class="verse00">Searched you with me for the treasures,</div> <div class="verse02">Culled the blossoms half unblown,</div> <div class="verse00">Opened them within my measures,</div> <div class="verse02">Letting each bloom as my own.</div> <div class="verse00">Lifted to my sight a heaven,</div> <div class="verse02">E’en while lying on your breast—</div> <div class="verse00">Graciously for it I’ve striven,</div> <div class="verse02">Ever hoping for the best.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47">[Pg 47]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i048.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="124" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="My_Angel_Visitor">My Angel Visitor. <small><br/> TO J. T. C.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>E</strong> talked together in the twilight gloom,</div> <div class="verse02">Her friend and mine of scenes and times long past;</div> <div class="verse00">And in the shadows of the quiet room,</div> <div class="verse02">It seemed to me an angel form was cast.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I saw, and yet my friend seemed not to see</div> <div class="verse02">The face familiar, with the gentle eyes,</div> <div class="verse00">Whose presence sanctified the past for me,</div> <div class="verse02">And made for him a glorious paradise.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I felt the pressure of a vanished hand</div> <div class="verse02">Upon my own, and heard a soft robe sweep—</div> <div class="verse00">The same has floated from the spirit-land,</div> <div class="verse02">And often trailed the chamber where I sleep.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I strove to break the spell that bound his heart,</div> <div class="verse02">That held his spirit as a bondsman tied,</div> <div class="verse00">When like a rose that shakes its leaves apart,</div> <div class="verse02">Her garments rustled close his chair beside.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And yet he knew it not. The angel face</div> <div class="verse02">Bent close above his own. So doth the moon</div> <div class="verse00">Sometimes, unseen, bend from her heavenly place,</div> <div class="verse02">To kiss a flower that falls asleep too soon.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“Awake, my friend,” I said, “too soon you sleep;</div> <div class="verse02">An angel figure stands beside your chair,</div> <div class="verse00">And I alone the sacred vigil keep.”</div> <div class="verse02">But as he woke, she vanished into air.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“O, friend of mine, and friend of hers,” I cried,</div> <div class="verse02">“A hallowed presence is so soon forgot.</div> <div class="verse00">She walked on earth an angel by your side,</div> <div class="verse02">The same as now, and yet you knew it not.”</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48">[Pg 48]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i049.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="46" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Keep_a_Bright_Face_Darling">Keep a Bright Face, Darling.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-k.jpg" width-obs="23" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">K</span>EEP</strong> a bright face, darling,</div> <div class="verse02">Though the task is hard,</div> <div class="verse00">Life holds up before you</div> <div class="verse02">Many a bright-faced card.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Though the clouds have gathered</div> <div class="verse02">And darkened all the way,</div> <div class="verse00">Rainbows o’er you arching</div> <div class="verse02">Tinge the skies of gray.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You have said what sunshine</div> <div class="verse02">Leaked in with the rain</div> <div class="verse00">Only brought new sorrow,</div> <div class="verse02">Brought but grief and pain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Keep a bright face, darling,</div> <div class="verse02">Set your scales anew,</div> <div class="verse00">Weigh again the sunshine</div> <div class="verse02">And the raindrops, too.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And you’ll find your measure</div> <div class="verse02">Hitherto was wrong,</div> <div class="verse00">Keep a bright face, darling,</div> <div class="verse02">And on your lips a song.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Heaven decrees our burdens,</div> <div class="verse02">And our faith God tries;</div> <div class="verse00">But a broken spirit</div> <div class="verse02">He can not despise.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Keep a bright face, darling—</div> <div class="verse02">Even while I write,</div> <div class="verse00">In the fields of midnight</div> <div class="verse02">Blossom stars of light.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Though the morning cometh</div> <div class="verse02">With a streak of gray,</div> <div class="verse00">’Tis a hint of sunshine</div> <div class="verse02">And a perfect day.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49">[Pg 49]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Journey slow and patient</div> <div class="verse02">With a purpose strong.</div> <div class="verse00">Keep a bright face, darling,</div> <div class="verse02">On your lips a song.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i050.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="104" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="My_Neighbors_Mill">My Neighbor’s Mill. <small><br/> TO M. BARLOW.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> love to sit here at the window-sill</div> <div class="verse02">When the sun falls asleep in the West,</div> <div class="verse00">And watch the gray Twilight walk over the hill</div> <div class="verse02">In garments of night partly dressed,</div> <div class="verse00">And see, through the rooms of my neighbor’s mill,</div> <div class="verse02">How she creeps like an unbidden guest.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I love the low hum of the numberless wheels—</div> <div class="verse02">They echo the heart-beats of time,</div> <div class="verse00">Each unto my pen its purpose reveals,</div> <div class="verse02">Like the magic of meter and rhyme;</div> <div class="verse00">Or, as to the soul that in penitence kneels,</div> <div class="verse02">Doth the sound of a slow vesper chime.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">We have been friends together, this old mill and I,</div> <div class="verse02">Yes, friends that are true, tried, and strong;</div> <div class="verse00">If over us gather a gray winter sky</div> <div class="verse02">We faced it sometimes with a song,</div> <div class="verse00">Or braved it in silence, scarce knowing why,</div> <div class="verse02">As together we labored along.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I fancy sometimes as I sit here alone</div> <div class="verse02">With the calm of the night in my heart,</div> <div class="verse00">When from the low roof the pigeons have flown,</div> <div class="verse02">And the stars their sweet stories impart,</div> <div class="verse00">That this mill unto me in a strange undertone</div> <div class="verse02">Is speaking as heart unto heart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">That it bids me look into the granary room</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50">[Pg 50]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">Where the yellow wheat is packed;</div> <div class="verse00">And anon to glance in with the sundown’s bloom</div> <div class="verse02">Where the snowy flour is sacked,</div> <div class="verse00">So I look—and it seems in the deepening gloom</div> <div class="verse02">There clouds upon clouds are stacked.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">What else do I scan through the moonlight’s lace</div> <div class="verse02">That scallops the window panes;</div> <div class="verse00">Why, the dear old miller’s honest face,</div> <div class="verse02">He’s counting his losses and gains,</div> <div class="verse00">And methinks on his visage I can trace</div> <div class="verse02">A look that my own heart pains.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Ah! think of the thousands his bounty feeds—</div> <div class="verse02">We beggars encircle his door,</div> <div class="verse00">While he scatters alike his bundle of seeds</div> <div class="verse02">To the humble, the rich, and the poor.</div> <div class="verse00">Sure there’s a reward for such generous deeds,</div> <div class="verse02">A reward that is brighter than ore!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But the lights have gone out of my neighbor’s mill,</div> <div class="verse02">And pale grows the red in the West;</div> <div class="verse00">The Night has crept up to my own window-sill</div> <div class="verse02">And pillowed my head on her breast,</div> <div class="verse00">While over the way—how peaceful and still!</div> <div class="verse02">The old mill’s asleep and at rest.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i051.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="184" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51">[Pg 51]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i052.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="105" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Dripping_Springs">Dripping Springs. <small><br/> TO MY BROTHER—D. G. SLAUGHTER.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>OMETHING</strong> moves my pen; its former chime</div> <div class="verse02">I fain would drop, and gladly lose the rhyme</div> <div class="verse00">That lights my verse as ore lights up a mine,</div> <div class="verse00">If on my canvas I could curve and line</div> <div class="verse00">These quiet hills, and for an hour could say</div> <div class="verse00">I’d caught the warmth that on the landscape lay,</div> <div class="verse00">And that I dreamed as artists sometimes dream</div> <div class="verse00">Who blend their smiles with meadow, mound, and stream;</div> <div class="verse00">I am indeed a child worn out at play,</div> <div class="verse00">And weary of my game I long to stray</div> <div class="verse00">To other haunts, to other heights unknown,</div> <div class="verse00">And claim that Raphael’s brush as half my own.</div> <div class="verse00">Alas! forsaken by my Muse I turn</div> <div class="verse00">And backward glance—she beckons my return—</div> <div class="verse00">She floods the old familiar fields with light,</div> <div class="verse00">She bids me pause, take up my pen and—write.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">’Tis scarce yet dawn, the leaves awake,</div> <div class="verse02">And in my brow the raindrops shake</div> <div class="verse02">The only remnant of the cloud</div> <div class="verse02">That pealed last night with thunder loud;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">The only hint that here with flowers</div> <div class="verse02">Come sometimes shadows, sometimes showers.</div> <div class="verse02">The morning is a dream of bliss,</div> <div class="verse02">The breeze not unlike Love’s first kiss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">My soul expands—I drink the dew,</div> <div class="verse02">It gives my veins a deeper hue,</div> <div class="verse02">I halt where like a singing rill</div> <div class="verse02">The spring comes dripping o’er the hill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">I fill my cup again, again,</div> <div class="verse02">I drink for all—good health to men—</div> <div class="verse02">I hear the rising bell’s faint sound,</div> <div class="verse02">The porter makes his usual round.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52">[Pg 52]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">And black-eyed Easter trips along</div> <div class="verse02">The kitchen porch with smile and song,</div> <div class="verse02">We find a poem in her churn,</div> <div class="verse02">An essence in her coffee urn;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">We note the pale dyspeptic’s cheek</div> <div class="verse02">Is growing rosy, round, and sleek;</div> <div class="verse02">His torpid stomach forced to fast,</div> <div class="verse02">Here soon partakes the rich repast.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Breakfast over, ’round the springs</div> <div class="verse02">The guests assemble—some in swings—</div> <div class="verse02">And those of a romantic turn</div> <div class="verse02">Stroll two and two in search of fern.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">For them the woods have more than speech,</div> <div class="verse02">A calm that to the heart doth reach,</div> <div class="verse02">That perfect peace of mind and soul</div> <div class="verse02">The sacred Book to us hath told.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">I deem that morning holds more charms</div> <div class="verse02">Than day hides elsewhere in her arms;</div> <div class="verse02">But when she folds her shadowy tent,</div> <div class="verse02">And stars laugh in the firmament,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">A newer phase doth nature take,</div> <div class="verse02">And in the heart new joys awake.</div> <div class="verse02">Some love the ball-room’s din and glare</div> <div class="verse02">As soft they trip some favorite air,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Some love to lounge about the spring,</div> <div class="verse02">Some frequent spots where hammocks swing,</div> <div class="verse02">And others saunter to the pool</div> <div class="verse02">Their tired limbs to bathe and cool.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">But give me just the shady rook</div> <div class="verse02">That o’er the dripping spring doth look,</div> <div class="verse02">And let me watch the bright lamps flash,</div> <div class="verse02">And let me listen to the splash</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Of the old spring that drips and drips,</div> <div class="verse02">To cool and cure the fever lips.</div> <div class="verse02">Who could forget the landlord’s vim</div> <div class="verse02">Or cottage rooms so neat and trim?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53">[Pg 53]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Who would not leave the city’s glare,</div> <div class="verse02">The heat, the dust, and stifling air—</div> <div class="verse02">Who would not part with all his wealth</div> <div class="verse02">To gain at Dripping Springs his health?</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i054a.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="70" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="In_Memoriam">In Memoriam.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HEY</strong> tell me she is dead, that we no more</div> <div class="verse02">Upon her quiet face can rest our eyes,</div> <div class="verse00">Yet long we for it, as a weary bird</div> <div class="verse00">Longs all in vain to rest upon a cloud</div> <div class="verse00">That heavenward floats. And yet there’s solace still</div> <div class="verse00">In musing on her faith so strong and pure,</div> <div class="verse00">That recognized, through pain, God’s every wish,</div> <div class="verse00">And dreaded not to taste death’s cup if so</div> <div class="verse00">By Him decreed.</div> <div class="verse06">I was not there to hold</div> <div class="verse00">Her hand; it chilled within the orphan’s palm</div> <div class="verse00">Until by angels clasp’d. I could not twine</div> <div class="verse00">The flowers she so much loved about her shroud,</div> <div class="verse00">Or speak a word of comfort to the friends</div> <div class="verse00">That sobbed, and kissed the lips grown strangely cold,</div> <div class="verse00">That never parted but to speak in praise</div> <div class="verse00">When others tried to censure; but my heart</div> <div class="verse00">Beats sad to-day the measures of my verse,</div> <div class="verse00">And tear-drops fall.</div> <div class="verse06">So falls the autumn rain</div> <div class="verse00">Upon her grave, and drifting are the leaves</div> <div class="verse00">Upon the mound that loving friends have raised</div> <div class="verse00">In memory of her, whose spirit rests</div> <div class="verse00">To-day with God.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i054b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="73" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54">[Pg 54]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i055.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="54" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Old_Orchard_Trees">The Old Orchard Trees.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>HY</strong> cut them away? The dear old trees,</div> <div class="verse02">They never did aught of harm,</div> <div class="verse00">But scattered their perfume out to the breeze,</div> <div class="verse02">And sheltered the birds from the storm.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For an age they have stood on the town’s outer meads,</div> <div class="verse02">The skirmish and battle have braved;</div> <div class="verse00">Alike they have gazed on the war’s bloody deeds,</div> <div class="verse02">And the white flag of peace as it waved.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But you cut them away! my pleading is vain!</div> <div class="verse02">In their shade moves the carpenter’s hands,</div> <div class="verse00">I watched him to-day as he leveled his plane,</div> <div class="verse02">And he spoke of the architect’s plans.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then a wave of distress in my heart flowed anew,</div> <div class="verse02">For dearly I love each old tree;</div> <div class="verse00">Ah me! many secrets are hidden from you</div> <div class="verse02">That the apple trees whispered to me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I used to go by, and the sweet morning air,</div> <div class="verse02">Like incense, arose from the spot,</div> <div class="verse00">It would crowd from my heart some pain gnawing there,</div> <div class="verse02">While the world with its cares was forgot.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Here, I’ve heard the first news of the blue bird and dove,</div> <div class="verse02">And the round, silver note of the thrush,</div> <div class="verse00">A concert, with sweet variations of love,</div> <div class="verse02">Seemed pouring from tree and from bush.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I walked there to-day; as an accent profane</div> <div class="verse02">That falls on the heart and the ear,</div> <div class="verse00">I heard the harsh echo of hammer and plane,</div> <div class="verse02">And the pant of a mill in the rear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I muffled my face with the veil that I wore—</div> <div class="verse02">Time, that moment of pain can’t appease;</div> <div class="verse00">Unless like the birds from the scene I can soar,</div> <div class="verse02">And like them, forget the old trees.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55">[Pg 55]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i056.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="79" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="On_the_Hill-top_Grow_the_Daisies">On the Hill-top Grow the Daisies. <small><br/> TO CARRIE ROGERS.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> chanced to stroll not long ago</div> <div class="verse02">To a green valley that you know;</div> <div class="verse00">For everything about the town</div> <div class="verse00">Was strange, and on me seemed to frown,</div> <div class="verse00">And so I wandered off alone,</div> <div class="verse00">To seek the friends from youth I’d known.</div> <div class="verse00">The brook came dashing down the hill,</div> <div class="verse00">The same old song to hum and trill;</div> <div class="verse00">With glances shy and kisses sweet,</div> <div class="verse00">It wound its ribbon at my feet,</div> <div class="verse00">And laughed aloud at my delight—</div> <div class="verse00">It was indeed a comic sight</div> <div class="verse00">To see me o’er the brooklet bend,</div> <div class="verse00">And greet again an old time friend.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So thus I sat, perhaps an hour,</div> <div class="verse00">Until I spied a human flower;</div> <div class="verse00">A little maid it seemed to be</div> <div class="verse00">With steps directed straight to me.</div> <div class="verse00">Her dress was pink, her bonnet white.</div> <div class="verse00">Her eyes were blue, and round, and bright,</div> <div class="verse00">Some daisies in her hand she held</div> <div class="verse00">But where they came from—would she tell?</div> <div class="verse00">Were questions that my eyes portrayed,</div> <div class="verse00">And she the answer quickly made.</div> <div class="verse00">“Upon the hill-top high they grow,</div> <div class="verse00">The path is there by which you go,</div> <div class="verse00">But if you get them you must climb,”</div> <div class="verse00">She said, unconscious of the rhyme.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I glanced along the rocky ledge;</div> <div class="verse00">The daisies nodded o’er the edge,</div> <div class="verse00">And just as far as I could see</div> <div class="verse00">They waved their ruffled caps to me.</div> <div class="verse00">Bright eyes that never had grown old</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56">[Pg 56]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">Their heart’s content to me foretold,</div> <div class="verse00">And I resolved the path to try</div> <div class="verse00">That seemed to end so near the sky;</div> <div class="verse00">And so I started up alone,</div> <div class="verse00">A way that seemed with mosses sown.</div> <div class="verse00">A pond’rous clod rolled on the track,</div> <div class="verse00">A briar reached and pulled me back,</div> <div class="verse00">A lizzard on the pathway played,</div> <div class="verse00">And half way up I paused—afraid.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“Keep on,” the little girl replied,</div> <div class="verse00">“A better path is near your side.”</div> <div class="verse00">She pulled the thorn from off my gown,</div> <div class="verse00">I heard the clod go plunging down,</div> <div class="verse00">And then she clasped with mine her hand,</div> <div class="verse00">And led me up to “daisy-land.”</div> <div class="verse00">The hours we spent together there</div> <div class="verse00">Were hallowed as the hours of prayer,</div> <div class="verse00">And when she left me in the vale</div> <div class="verse00">The sunlight suddenly grew pale;</div> <div class="verse00">But she had taught me this strange truth,</div> <div class="verse00">Forgot, or never learned in youth,</div> <div class="verse00">It seems a little song in rhyme,</div> <div class="verse00">“To reach the daisies, you must climb.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Bardstown, Ky.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i057.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="62" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Ella_Lee">Ella Lee.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>HERE</strong> is Ella? Ella Lee?</div> <div class="verse02">How I’ve missed her childish glee.</div> <div class="verse00">Missed her step so light and airy,</div> <div class="verse00">Missed the darling little fairy.</div> <div class="verse00">She was nimble as a fawn,</div> <div class="verse00">Lovely as the blush of dawn,</div> <div class="verse00">And her voice sweet as the rill</div> <div class="verse00">Gliding down the grassy hill.</div> <div class="verse00">Where is she, I’ve missed her so,</div> <div class="verse00">Surely some one ought to know.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I have called her in the crowd,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57">[Pg 57]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">Called her soft and called her loud,</div> <div class="verse00">Called her sad and called her sweet,</div> <div class="verse00">In the house and on the street.</div> <div class="verse00">Yet she does not seem to hear,</div> <div class="verse00">Though I’ve called her far and near.</div> <div class="verse00">Hark! I hear a blackbird’s note,</div> <div class="verse00">And he wears a brand new coat;</div> <div class="verse00">Surely some sweet word he brings,</div> <div class="verse00">On his iridescent wings.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Let me hail him by this tree.</div> <div class="verse00">Listen! now he sings to me,</div> <div class="verse00">Tells me, in his honest way,</div> <div class="verse00">That our darling’s gone away.</div> <div class="verse00">Far, so far away she roams,</div> <div class="verse00">Into other hearts and homes,</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! the budding little flower</div> <div class="verse00">Sweetens every empty hour,</div> <div class="verse00">Making earth a dream of bliss</div> <div class="verse00">By the magic of her kiss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Though she fled like a sunbeam,</div> <div class="verse00">Still I hold a treasured dream,</div> <div class="verse00">And were she to skip to-day,</div> <div class="verse00">In her easy, childish way,</div> <div class="verse00">To the playground of my heart,</div> <div class="verse00">Childhood’s gate would fly apart,</div> <div class="verse00">And she’d find the violet’s face,</div> <div class="verse00">Smiling still in memory’s vase;</div> <div class="verse00">Green and fresh the springtime sod,</div> <div class="verse00">That her dainty feet had trod.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i058.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="97" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58">[Pg 58]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i059.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="42" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="What_is_the_West_Wind_Saying">What is the West Wind Saying.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-o-exclamation-point.jpg" width-obs="46" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <span class="hide">O!</span> What is the west wind saying!</div> <div class="verse04">It whispers so strange in my ear,</div> <div class="verse00">As if some sad message delaying,</div> <div class="verse02">From friends who are absent and dear.</div> <div class="verse00">It laughs with the leaves on the tree-tops,</div> <div class="verse02">And bows as the cloudlets go by,</div> <div class="verse00">And plays with the flowers</div> <div class="verse00">For hours and hours,</div> <div class="verse02">Yet for me has only a sigh.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">O! what is the west wind singing?</div> <div class="verse02">’Tis rocking the birds in the nest,</div> <div class="verse00">And over the world it is flinging</div> <div class="verse02">The emblems of quiet and rest.</div> <div class="verse00">New comfort it brings to the mother,</div> <div class="verse02">And hushes the babe on her knee,</div> <div class="verse00">Singing softly to her</div> <div class="verse00">And the tired laborer,</div> <div class="verse02">Yet sadly and strangely to me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">O! what is the west wind showing?</div> <div class="verse02">New faces look strangely in mine,</div> <div class="verse00">Stranger tints in the sunset are glowing,</div> <div class="verse02">Somber shadings of amber and wine.</div> <div class="verse00">Far away the blue hills seem to beckon</div> <div class="verse02">Me back to a sweet cottage home,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the rose and the vine</div> <div class="verse00">’Round the door-way entwine—</div> <div class="verse02">Alas! that from them I must roam!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">O! what is the west wind asking?</div> <div class="verse02">Why question a stranger like me?</div> <div class="verse00">If a friend, why so perfect the masking?</div> <div class="verse02">Your counterpart glad would I see.</div> <div class="verse00">Ah, a friend in disguise! what is sweeter,</div> <div class="verse02">Come, let us together commune,</div> <div class="verse00">If you bring but a kiss</div> <div class="verse00">From the loved ones I miss,</div> <div class="verse02">I can ask of you no greater boon.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59">[Pg 59]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i060.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="62" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="To_a_Mountain_Stream">To a Mountain Stream.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-g.jpg" width-obs="22" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">G</span>LAD</strong> as childish laughter</div> <div class="verse02">From a childish throng,</div> <div class="verse00">Sweet as bird voice after</div> <div class="verse02">Daybreak is your song.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Racing down the mountain</div> <div class="verse02">On your shining feet,</div> <div class="verse00">Waltzing at the fountain</div> <div class="verse02">To its love song sweet.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">On and on you travel,</div> <div class="verse02">Leaving me behind,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a silken ravel</div> <div class="verse02">With the weeds you wind.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Laughing at distresses;</div> <div class="verse02">Braving battles, too;</div> <div class="verse00">Who your trouble guesses,</div> <div class="verse02">And your sorrow—who?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Tell me as you hurry</div> <div class="verse02">Through the stubble field,</div> <div class="verse00">Why not stop to worry—</div> <div class="verse02">But no frown’s revealed.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Sometime you must weary</div> <div class="verse02">Of this constant strife;</div> <div class="verse00">When the clouds are dreary,</div> <div class="verse02">Tire you not of life?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Of the dead leaves drifted</div> <div class="verse02">On your saddened face,</div> <div class="verse00">And the snow flakes sifted</div> <div class="verse02">From the cloudland place?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Yet you ne’er repineth,</div> <div class="verse02">But alike content</div> <div class="verse00">With the sun that shineth,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60">[Pg 60]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">And the rainstorm sent.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Teach me half the beauty</div> <div class="verse02">That your heart must know,</div> <div class="verse00">And through fields of duty</div> <div class="verse02">Like you, will I go.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i061.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="104" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Pen_Pictures">Pen Pictures. <small><br/> (WRITTEN DURING A SNOW-STORM.)</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> love the snow flakes in the air,</div> <div class="verse02">When from the heavens they downward dart;</div> <div class="verse00">I love to watch them sailing there,</div> <div class="verse02">Like thoughts freed from a poet’s heart,</div> <div class="verse00">Uncertain which, the earth or sky,</div> <div class="verse02">Should claim their last abiding place;</div> <div class="verse00">And yet I watch them drifting by,</div> <div class="verse02">And strive to join the airy race.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The railway cars like spirits glide</div> <div class="verse02">Through many a mountain’s haunted tomb,</div> <div class="verse00">Above the river’s solemn tide,</div> <div class="verse02">Along the ravine’s chilly room;</div> <div class="verse00">On, on, through cedar groves we wind,</div> <div class="verse02">That yesterday a zephyr wooed;</div> <div class="verse00">To-day they stand with heads inclined,</div> <div class="verse02">A sad and stricken multitude.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The sky bends low with heavy clouds,</div> <div class="verse02">And from the long slope of a hill,</div> <div class="verse00">The pines look down in spotless shrouds</div> <div class="verse02">Upon a valley whiter still.</div> <div class="verse00">A tiny stream runs breathless by,</div> <div class="verse02">Affrighted at the ghostly sight;</div> <div class="verse00">The sun sleeps in the western sky,</div> <div class="verse02">And twilight deepens into night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The train glides on. Each mountain scene</div> <div class="verse02">Is like a panoramic view,</div> <div class="verse00">Though oft I toward the window lean,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61">[Pg 61]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">To scan some object that I knew.</div> <div class="verse00">I see a log hut in the vale,</div> <div class="verse02">And rustic children glad and warm;</div> <div class="verse00">A mother’s face, forlorn and pale,</div> <div class="verse02">Looks out upon the winter storm.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The little cascade down the glen</div> <div class="verse02">Is falling like a mourner’s tears;</div> <div class="verse00">The wind shrieks by, and from his den</div> <div class="verse02">Jack Frost hangs out his icy spears,</div> <div class="verse00">Defying e’en the piling drift;</div> <div class="verse02">And while the Winter King he warns,</div> <div class="verse00">Lo! through a cloud above the cliff,</div> <div class="verse02">The young moon shakes her silver horns.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Orion next his rage revealed,</div> <div class="verse02">As if he, too, the insult felt;</div> <div class="verse00">He raises high his club and shield,</div> <div class="verse02">And swings his bright sword from his belt;</div> <div class="verse00">And like a demon downward driven,</div> <div class="verse02">The howling wind his dungeon seeks;</div> <div class="verse00">For nature sees the hosts of heaven</div> <div class="verse02">Resent her cold and heartless freaks.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The storm grew still, and I could see</div> <div class="verse02">The clouds above the cliff disband,</div> <div class="verse00">E’en as the wave on Galilee</div> <div class="verse02">Grew docile at the Lord’s command;</div> <div class="verse00">And as I shake from off my pen</div> <div class="verse02">The ink that stamped these pictures chill,</div> <div class="verse00">I seem to hear those words again</div> <div class="verse02">Breathed softly o’er me, “Peace, be still.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">January, 1886.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i062.jpg" width-obs="125" height-obs="48" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62">[Pg 62]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i063.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="87" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="To_Mother">To Mother.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> heard a song last night, mother,</div> <div class="verse02">A song you used to sing,</div> <div class="verse00">When like a little bird, mother,</div> <div class="verse02">With weak and unfledged wing,</div> <div class="verse00">I played about your flowing gown</div> <div class="verse02">Contented with your smile,</div> <div class="verse00">Though all the world should cast a frown</div> <div class="verse02">Upon your happy child.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The song I heard last night, mother,</div> <div class="verse02">Came floating through the door</div> <div class="verse00">As if some angel voice, mother,</div> <div class="verse02">Had sung it oft before;</div> <div class="verse00">But, O! I missed the patient pause,</div> <div class="verse02">The low accustomed tone,</div> <div class="verse00">I turned away heart-sick—because</div> <div class="verse02">The voice was not your own.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Those dear old songs you used to sing,</div> <div class="verse02">That made my heart-beats rhyme,</div> <div class="verse00">Have bubbled up from memory’s spring,</div> <div class="verse02">Ah! many and many a time.</div> <div class="verse00">When thirsty or with thought oppressed,</div> <div class="verse02">When tired of the sunshine,</div> <div class="verse00">When longing for the shade and rest,</div> <div class="verse02">I hear those songs of thine.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">They’re just as low and sweet to-day</div> <div class="verse02">As when I heard them first;</div> <div class="verse00">And though I am so far away,</div> <div class="verse02">The field glass though reversed,</div> <div class="verse00">Holds still a picture that I love,</div> <div class="verse02">Three faces—four with mine—</div> <div class="verse00">Another looks from heaven above,</div> <div class="verse02">A little face—like thine.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63">[Pg 63]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i064.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="120" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Broken_Heart">The Broken Heart. <small><br/> TO MISS F. B.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-h.jpg" width-obs="24" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">H</span>E</strong> brought me a heart one morning,</div> <div class="verse02">Brought me a heart to mend;</div> <div class="verse00">And he said (I shall never forget it)</div> <div class="verse02">“’Twas broken by your friend.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“The wound will grow deeper and wider,”</div> <div class="verse02">He said in a sadder tone,</div> <div class="verse00">“Unless you devise some method</div> <div class="verse02">To place it against her own.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then I crept away to my chamber,</div> <div class="verse02">But a thought, like a silver stream,</div> <div class="verse00">Kept trickling along the wayside</div> <div class="verse02">That bordered my restless dream.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I hid this heart in a lily,</div> <div class="verse02">When the dawn began to break—</div> <div class="verse00">In a beautiful water lily,</div> <div class="verse02">That grew on the rim of a lake.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Yes, down on a snowy pillow,</div> <div class="verse02">In a cradle warm and deep,</div> <div class="verse00">I laid the little foundling,</div> <div class="verse02">And a ripple rocked it to sleep.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The dawn came up with blushes,</div> <div class="verse02">And shook from her gown the dew;</div> <div class="verse00">And I heard the song of the skylark,</div> <div class="verse02">As into the clouds he flew.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But the heart dreamed on in the lily</div> <div class="verse02">And I went at the close of day,</div> <div class="verse00">And found that my little treasure</div> <div class="verse02">Was chilled by the foam and spray.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I warmed it upon my bosom,</div> <div class="verse02">Then cradled it back on the wave;</div> <div class="verse00">But I feared that the lily’s offspring</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64">[Pg 64]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">Was doomed to a watery grave.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I watched till the daylight vanished</div> <div class="verse02">Through the sunset’s purple bars,</div> <div class="verse00">Till the night climbed over the willows,</div> <div class="verse02">And lit up the moon and stars.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I thought I heard your footstep,</div> <div class="verse02">And low in the reeds and grass</div> <div class="verse00">I crouched, that there, unnoticed,</div> <div class="verse02">I might behold you pass.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You came in your regal beauty,</div> <div class="verse02">And, bright as the weird fire flies</div> <div class="verse00">That illumined the waving rushes,</div> <div class="verse02">I saw your glorious eyes.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You kneeled on the mossy margin—</div> <div class="verse02">I counted the lilies there;</div> <div class="verse00">Two buds and a creamy blossom</div> <div class="verse02">Were fastened in your hair.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Another was drawn from the water,</div> <div class="verse02">And, pushing the reeds apart,</div> <div class="verse00">I saw ’twas the very lily</div> <div class="verse02">Wherein I had hidden the heart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You pinned it low down on your bodice,</div> <div class="verse02">Half hidden it lay in the lace,</div> <div class="verse00">And you passed by—“a two-fold existence,”</div> <div class="verse02">A new light enriching your face.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And though I am absent and distant,</div> <div class="verse02">Methinks I can still hear the tone</div> <div class="verse00">Of a heart that, with happy emotion,</div> <div class="verse02">Is beating, aye! close to your own.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i065.jpg" width-obs="75" height-obs="140" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65">[Pg 65]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i066.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="66" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Year_Ago">A Year Ago. <small><br/> IN MEMORY OF MY DEAR FRIEND, SCOTTA P. PROCTOR.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> year ago I held in mine her hand,</div> <div class="verse02">And felt the pulses quicken and dissolve,</div> <div class="verse00">While o’er her face a light from heaven’s own land</div> <div class="verse02">Seemed all the mystery of death to solve.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">She raised her weary eyes to mine and sighed—</div> <div class="verse02">Sighed as a flow’r o’er which the storm clouds bend</div> <div class="verse00">When long the promised sunlight is denied,</div> <div class="verse02">And cold and heavy rains from heaven descend.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">She tried to speak; I knelt beside her bed,</div> <div class="verse02">That one last wish she might to me impart;</div> <div class="verse00">A whisper came, and then the spirit fled</div> <div class="verse02">Like some sweet thought long prisoned in the heart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A year ago I twined the lilies white</div> <div class="verse02">About her shroud, and with the coffin’s lace,</div> <div class="verse00">For she had loved them; all the long, long night</div> <div class="verse02">They press their waxen lips upon her face.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I heard the funeral bell toll sad and long—</div> <div class="verse02">My heart reverberates to-day the sound—</div> <div class="verse00">And then there came a prayer—a pause—a song,</div> <div class="verse02">And blossoms next were heaped upon a mound.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I turned aside and homeward bent my way;</div> <div class="verse02">Alas! the face I loved so long—not there—</div> <div class="verse00">Sweet memories arose to gild my day,</div> <div class="verse02">But sadder ones to mock my heart’s despair.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Where is she now? you think the grave can hide</div> <div class="verse02">A friend so true within its dungeon deep?</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! no; she walketh ever by my side,</div> <div class="verse02">And watches o’er me when I chance to sleep.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">We stroll abroad oft at the twilight’s hour</div> <div class="verse02">To memory’s garden. Under memory’s tree</div> <div class="verse00">She pulls the silver mask from many a flower,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66">[Pg 66]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">And reads its tender secrets all to me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">She guides my pen along uncertain heights,</div> <div class="verse02">Where unattended I could never go;</div> <div class="verse00">The candle of success she often lights</div> <div class="verse02">When the flame flickers and the wick burns low.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">She leads me to the grave and says, “Not here,</div> <div class="verse02">But there,” and points me to the heavenly gate;</div> <div class="verse00">And when upon my cheek there falls a tear</div> <div class="verse02">(For sometimes yet my heart grows desolate),</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I feel upon my face her own soft hand,</div> <div class="verse02">And glimpses of her robe sometimes have seen.</div> <div class="verse00">O, happy thought! how strong is friendship’s band,</div> <div class="verse02">When out of heaven an angel friend can lean.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A year ago! sad, sad that parting day,</div> <div class="verse02">And sadder still, the last, the long adieu.</div> <div class="verse00">Death called the angel of my heart away—</div> <div class="verse02">And now she opens heaven to my view.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">May 16, 1886.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i067.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="65" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Christmas_Peep">A Christmas Peep.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> passed a toy window,</div> <div class="verse02">And many pretty things</div> <div class="verse00">Old Santa Claus had labeled,</div> <div class="verse02">And tied with silken strings.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A kite was bought for Jimmie,</div> <div class="verse02">A little stove for Kate,</div> <div class="verse00">A doll for Capitola,</div> <div class="verse02">For Charlie a new slate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A silver knife for father,</div> <div class="verse02">For mother, dear, a fan,</div> <div class="verse00">And the prettiest little fiddle</div> <div class="verse02">Was bought for baby Dan.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Hang up your little stockings,</div> <div class="verse02">And keep the fireside bright,</div> <div class="verse00">Old Santa Claus is coming,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67">[Pg 67]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">His sleigh is out to-night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Ten dollars worth of candy</div> <div class="verse02">Was emptied in his sleigh,</div> <div class="verse00">And peanuts by the barrel,</div> <div class="verse02">To be eaten Christmas day.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">His lap was full of toys,</div> <div class="verse02">Little drums and little ships,</div> <div class="verse00">Little buggies, little ponies,</div> <div class="verse02">And little riding whips.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The baby dolls were sleeping</div> <div class="verse02">In their cradles snug,</div> <div class="verse00">But the others all were peeping</div> <div class="verse02">From underneath his rug.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Old Santa was so happy,</div> <div class="verse02">That as he drove along</div> <div class="verse00">He jingled ever sleigh bell,</div> <div class="verse02">And sang a Christmas song.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So don’t forget him, children,</div> <div class="verse02">He’s on the way to night,</div> <div class="verse00">Hang up your little stockings,</div> <div class="verse02">And keep the fireside bright.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i068.jpg" width-obs="75" height-obs="75" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68">[Pg 68]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i069.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="50" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Winnies_Christmas_Eve">Winnie’s Christmas Eve.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-p.jpg" width-obs="19" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">P</span>OOR</strong> little Winnie had plodded the street,</div> <div class="verse02">Up and down through the rain and sleet,</div> <div class="verse00">Singing her innocent songs all day,</div> <div class="verse00">In a sweet and merry childish way;</div> <div class="verse00">Asking sometimes for the night a bed,</div> <div class="verse00">A bowl of milk, or a crust of bread.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">She had sung on the corners and city square,</div> <div class="verse00">But no one had time to remember her there;</div> <div class="verse00">Numbers had passed her who never before</div> <div class="verse00">Failed to toss in her basket a penny or more.</div> <div class="verse00">It is Christmas; their hearts are so happy and light—</div> <div class="verse00">But poor little Winnie’s forgotten to-night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Chilly and rayless the sky seems to frown,</div> <div class="verse00">The clouds, too, are shaking the soft snow-flakes down;</div> <div class="verse00">Over her pretty face, waltzing they fall</div> <div class="verse00">Into her bonnet and folds of the shawl;</div> <div class="verse00">Think of it, fathers, with firesides warm,</div> <div class="verse00">Poor little Winnie is out in the storm.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Backward and forward the tired feet go,</div> <div class="verse00">From her lips little ripples of music still flow.</div> <div class="verse00">Homeless and hungry, still begging for bread,</div> <div class="verse00">Receiving a curse and reproaches instead;</div> <div class="verse00">Shiv’ring with fear in the pitiless light,</div> <div class="verse00">Poor little Winnie is starving to-night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Alone in the street, yet the little lips move,</div> <div class="verse00">Trying to echo those accents of love.</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! think of that, mothers! those syllables sweet</div> <div class="verse00">Of your darlings, how fondly the same you repeat!</div> <div class="verse00">You are trying so faithful to lead them aright</div> <div class="verse00">When poor little Winnie is freezing to-night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">See her! How slowly she’s moving along—</div> <div class="verse00">Her lips are too icy to echo the song.</div> <div class="verse00">How changed are her features! How feeble! how weak!</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69">[Pg 69]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">A pallor creeps over her forehead and cheek—</div> <div class="verse00">Perhaps it is only the flickering light,</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! no; little Winnie is dying to-night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The revel is over in parlor and park,</div> <div class="verse00">The bonfire vanished, the street is so dark;</div> <div class="verse00">The snow-flakes are falling in many a heap,</div> <div class="verse00">The city is quiet, at rest, and asleep;</div> <div class="verse00">But there in the shadows, scarce out of sight,</div> <div class="verse00">Little Winnie lies dead in a snow-drift to-night.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i070.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="108" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="My_Hearts_Little_Room">My Heart’s Little Room. <small><br/> TO LIZZIE, DORA, AND GRACE.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HERE’S</strong> a dear little chamber somewhere in my heart</div> <div class="verse02">That opens to only you three;</div> <div class="verse00">Though many have tried to unfasten the door,</div> <div class="verse00">They picked at the lock till their fingers were sore,</div> <div class="verse02">For to file it apart</div> <div class="verse02">Vainly proved every art,</div> <div class="verse00">And in vain have they sought for the key.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Many times I go into this quaint little room,</div> <div class="verse00">The pictures to change or adjust;</div> <div class="verse00">I see your sweet faces grouped there with my own,</div> <div class="verse00">And I wonder that I feel so strangely alone;</div> <div class="verse02">But about through the room</div> <div class="verse02">I move briskly the broom,</div> <div class="verse00">And sweep from the corners the dust.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">The windows I throw open wide to the air</div> <div class="verse00">To let in the breeze and the light;</div> <div class="verse00">I watch the sunbeams in their mischievous way</div> <div class="verse00">Creep into the curtains, like children at play,</div> <div class="verse02">And while I am there</div> <div class="verse02">I have no thought of care,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70">[Pg 70]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">For the room is so warm and so bright.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">And oft I look up from the balcony’s brink</div> <div class="verse00">To a sky that shows many a hue;</div> <div class="verse00">A vine clambers thickly the window above,</div> <div class="verse00">Where my birds sing together their rhythm of love;</div> <div class="verse02">My thoughts with them link</div> <div class="verse02">For I sit here and think</div> <div class="verse00">And all of my song is for you.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Ah! some day I know you will come back to me</div> <div class="verse00">To rest in this queer little room;</div> <div class="verse00">And that’s why so tidy and clean it is kept,</div> <div class="verse00">The air always fragrant, the floor always swept,</div> <div class="verse02">For I long here to see</div> <div class="verse02">My sweet roses three,</div> <div class="verse00">As from buds into blossoms they bloom.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse02">Then come when you may, be the sky black or blue,</div> <div class="verse00">The lock will unclasp as of yore;</div> <div class="verse00">For (unless Death should come introspecting my heart,</div> <div class="verse00">And break down its barriers and wrench them apart),</div> <div class="verse02">A friend that is true</div> <div class="verse02">Will be watching for you,</div> <div class="verse00">Ever waiting to unbar the door.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i071.jpg" width-obs="80" height-obs="70" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71">[Pg 71]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i072.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="59" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Three_Muses">The Three Muses.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-m.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">M</span>ETHOUGHT</strong> three muses in disguise</div> <div class="verse02">As angels tapped upon my door,</div> <div class="verse00">And a dim light from paradise</div> <div class="verse02">Fell on the instruments they bore.</div> <div class="verse00">One held a zithern in her hand</div> <div class="verse02">And lightly swept the throbbing strings;</div> <div class="verse00">And, O! it seemed a fairy land</div> <div class="verse02">Was stirred by unexpected wings.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I held my breath and prayed that night</div> <div class="verse02">Would be extended into day,</div> <div class="verse00">But with the thought came morning’s light,</div> <div class="verse02">And low the echo died away.</div> <div class="verse00">An artist’s canvas, pink with dawn,</div> <div class="verse02">The second angel turned to me,</div> <div class="verse00">Her brush strayed o’er a grassy lawn</div> <div class="verse02">And dotted here and there a tree.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">All blooming in immortal dyes,</div> <div class="verse02">With streamlets winding clear and blue,</div> <div class="verse00">Where, looking from the far off skies,</div> <div class="verse02">The clouds were mirrored to my view.</div> <div class="verse00">But when the sun blazed from the sky,</div> <div class="verse02">And on the painted landscape shone,</div> <div class="verse00">I heard the artist angel sigh,</div> <div class="verse02">And when I looked she, too, had flown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The scratching of a pen I heard</div> <div class="verse02">And saw a face demure and sweet</div> <div class="verse00">With inspiration. Every word</div> <div class="verse02">I begged the angel to repeat.</div> <div class="verse00">A thousand zephyrs fanned the air,</div> <div class="verse02">Tuned low with hum of birds and bees,</div> <div class="verse00">No need of zithern music where</div> <div class="verse02">Æolian harps were in the trees.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">No need of artists to rehearse</div> <div class="verse02">Upon the canvas nature, when</div> <div class="verse00">I saw the world revolve in verse</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72">[Pg 72]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">Upon the axis of the pen.</div> <div class="verse00">“Be thou eternally my guide,</div> <div class="verse02">Teach me your mystic pen to use!</div> <div class="verse00">O! linger ever near,” I cried,</div> <div class="verse02">“Musician, artist, poet—muse!”</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i073a.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="62" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Recollection">A Recollection.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span>N</strong> my heart there is a fragrance not of bursting buds or bloom,</div> <div class="verse02">But a faint delicious essence floats as out of memory’s room.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Like a zephyr blown from heaven some sweet message to impart,</div> <div class="verse00">Comes a fragile recollection down the by-path to my heart.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Fragile did I say? So fragile that the lace-wrought butterfly</div> <div class="verse00">Would not tilt its wings to bear it back from earth into the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Yet perplexed as to its mission down the pathway I retreat,</div> <div class="verse00">Hark! an echo in the distance, as of silver-slippered feet.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Why should I evade its coming, when ’tis such a little thing?</div> <div class="verse00">Just a tiny recollection that my thoughts have given wing.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Soon, too soon, ’twill overtake me, see! ’tis gaining on me fast—</div> <div class="verse00">In my soul the rose leaves quiver—withered rose leaves of the past.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It is useless to dissemble, further fleeing is in vain,</div> <div class="verse00">’Round my heart I feel the tight’ning of a slender silken chain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">All the past spreads out around me, as if by the Hand above,</div> <div class="verse00">So I turn, and find I’m standing face to face with my first love.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i073b.jpg" width-obs="80" height-obs="49" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73">[Pg 73]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i074.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="57" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Dont_Question_Him_Why">Don’t Question Him Why.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-d.jpg" width-obs="24" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">D</span>ON’T</strong> question him why if at times you can trace</div> <div class="verse02">A sorrowful something that looks from his face;</div> <div class="verse00">Though it shadows his brow as a raincloud the sky,</div> <div class="verse00">Look on it and wonder—don’t question him why.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">If he steal from your side when the twilight descends,</div> <div class="verse00">And wander away from old comrades and friends,</div> <div class="verse00">To rest unobserved in some shady retreat,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the past and the present seem always to meet,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Don’t follow him there; let the stars overhead</div> <div class="verse00">Their better and holier sympathy shed—</div> <div class="verse00">And should an old love-light illumine his eye,</div> <div class="verse00">Though you bask in its splendor—don’t question him why.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">For, out of the past that is shrouded away,</div> <div class="verse00">Looks a face omnipresent, unseen by the day.</div> <div class="verse00">A face like no other—a face in the sky</div> <div class="verse00">To be looked at and worshipped, but not questioned why.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Should his lips meet your own with an indifferent grace</div> <div class="verse00">That hurries the bloom to your averted face,</div> <div class="verse00">Though Doubt is a sentinel stationed near by,</div> <div class="verse00">Beware of his bayonet—don’t question why.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You may ask if you choose as he moves through the dance,</div> <div class="verse00">If ’tis Beauty or Passion that cowers his glance,</div> <div class="verse00">But question him not, O! ask him not why</div> <div class="verse00">There awoke in his bosom that deep-seated sigh.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Should he turn from the ball-room sometime with disgust</div> <div class="verse00">And shake from his sandals its memory and dust,</div> <div class="verse00">To bare a sick heart with its fevers of sin,</div> <div class="verse00">Beg heaven to filter a dewdrop within,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But question him not, for a word like a spark</div> <div class="verse00">Would quicken the pulses reduced by the dark;</div> <div class="verse00">Leave, leave him alone with his sorrow and God,</div> <div class="verse00">And let Silence spread o’er his heart’s grave the sod.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74">[Pg 74]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i075a.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="73" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Why">Why?</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>HY</strong> is it that I keep her glove—</div> <div class="verse02">Poor little phantom of lost love—</div> <div class="verse00">Why was it that I wore her ring,</div> <div class="verse00">And love the songs she used to sing,</div> <div class="verse00">And treasure under lock and key,</div> <div class="verse00">The letters she has written me?</div> <div class="verse04">Why?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Why is it that where’er I go,</div> <div class="verse00">As footsteps follow in the snow,</div> <div class="verse00">As low and light, she seems to glide</div> <div class="verse00">Along the highway at my side?</div> <div class="verse00">Yet, when my arms seek to embrace</div> <div class="verse00">Her form, then vanishes her face.</div> <div class="verse04">Why?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Why is it that no other tone</div> <div class="verse00">Falls on my ear as did her own?</div> <div class="verse00">No other hand so soft and white,</div> <div class="verse00">No other eye so warm and bright—</div> <div class="verse00">Though other lips I since have pressed,</div> <div class="verse00">I something missed—the truth you’ve guessed.</div> <div class="verse04">Why?</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i075b.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="80" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Sunset_Longing">A Sunset Longing. <small><br/> TO F. S. H.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-w.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">W</span>HAT</strong> meaneth this unrest within my heart,</div> <div class="verse02">And why do I sit here alone and sigh?</div> <div class="verse00">The sunset throws its garnished doors apart,</div> <div class="verse02">And palace halls are opened in the sky—</div> <div class="verse06">I gaze upon the gold strewn in the west,</div> <div class="verse06">A miser, of his jewels dispossessed.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75">[Pg 75]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I have played in the sunset’s crimson rain,</div> <div class="verse02">And felt its saffron torch wave o’er my brow,</div> <div class="verse00">That heated to excess my maddened brain,</div> <div class="verse02">And threw a halo ’round my heart—but now,</div> <div class="verse06">Like some poor bird far from its kindred sky,</div> <div class="verse06">I look into the sunset—look and sigh.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I have no friend to lean upon my heart,</div> <div class="verse02">Ah! how I miss the pressure of thy hand,</div> <div class="verse00">And thy dear voice seems of the past a part;</div> <div class="verse02">Thy figure like a shade from shadow-land.</div> <div class="verse06">I think I would be happy if you came</div> <div class="verse06">And touched my hand, or softly called my name.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">If I could look into your face to-night,</div> <div class="verse02">And search the deep mines of your pensive eyes,</div> <div class="verse00">Sure, I would find there a responsive light,</div> <div class="verse02">To dissipate from out my heart the sighs;</div> <div class="verse06">And then I know my lips would lose their scorn,</div> <div class="verse06">And in my soul a new impulse be born.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">If we could wander off far from the crowd</div> <div class="verse02">Among the hills—our voices there unheard—</div> <div class="verse00">Where once our hearts in unison beat loud,</div> <div class="verse02">To the sweet song of some wild mountain bird,</div> <div class="verse06">I think the twilight vail would lose its gloom,</div> <div class="verse06">That shrouds to-night the windows of my room.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Perhaps ’tis wrong that I should sadden you</div> <div class="verse02">With these rain-droppings that my heart-clouds shed;</div> <div class="verse00">Gladly would I distill a drop of dew</div> <div class="verse02">Down deep into your flower-like heart instead.</div> <div class="verse06">Some other night, if separation’s sky</div> <div class="verse06">Should clearer grow, dear absent one, I’ll try.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i076.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="38" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76">[Pg 76]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i077.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="73" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Journeys">Journeys.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-o.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">O</span>H!</strong> the many, many journeys</div> <div class="verse02">I have taken in a day!</div> <div class="verse00">Journeys short and journeys long,</div> <div class="verse00">Journeys right and journeys wrong;</div> <div class="verse00">Often pausing on the way,</div> <div class="verse00">Themes so grand my thoughts delay—</div> <div class="verse00">Themes suggesting instant song—</div> <div class="verse00">Lofty, good,</div> <div class="verse00">Scarce understood,</div> <div class="verse00">Dying ere I knew their worth,</div> <div class="verse00">As an infant dies at birth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! the melancholy journeys</div> <div class="verse00">That on earth my eyes have seen!</div> <div class="verse00">Over cemeteries vast,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a spirit I have passed,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the helmet and canteen</div> <div class="verse00">Cankered near a grave-stone lean,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the warrior’s sword was cast;</div> <div class="verse00">And the mould,</div> <div class="verse00">So shallow rolled,</div> <div class="verse00">That the eagle from on high</div> <div class="verse00">Dropped his penetrating eye.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! the mad, exciting journey!</div> <div class="verse00">Floating down the sunset’s tide,</div> <div class="verse00">Where there is no sign of sail,</div> <div class="verse00">Neither any promised gale.</div> <div class="verse00">Flames about on every side,</div> <div class="verse00">Every hope from me denied.</div> <div class="verse00">Even the clouds I can not hail;</div> <div class="verse00">As they drift,</div> <div class="verse00">Their cinders sift</div> <div class="verse00">On the water where they float,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a freighted, burning boat.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! the sweet, yet lonesome journey</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77">[Pg 77]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">That I always take alone!</div> <div class="verse00">Back into the vanished past,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the sunshine runneth fast.</div> <div class="verse00">There the rose is open blown,</div> <div class="verse00">There I hear a loving tone,</div> <div class="verse00">There no twilight shades are cast;</div> <div class="verse00">But complete</div> <div class="verse00">And very sweet</div> <div class="verse00">Is the dawn, when, like a child,</div> <div class="verse00">Love looked in my heart and smiled.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! the happy, happy journey,</div> <div class="verse00">With my loved one near my side!</div> <div class="verse00">Open stands the prison room;</div> <div class="verse00">We forget its chilly tomb.</div> <div class="verse00">Over fields of grain we glide,</div> <div class="verse00">Over rivers broad we ride,</div> <div class="verse00">Drinking up the earth’s perfume;</div> <div class="verse00">Like a thought</div> <div class="verse00">The muses taught—</div> <div class="verse00">Onward o’er the world we fly,</div> <div class="verse00">Like twin clouds born of the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! the swift, inspiring journey,</div> <div class="verse00">Far away in unknown space!</div> <div class="verse00">Where my castles stand complete,</div> <div class="verse00">And the gardens full and sweet;</div> <div class="verse00">Where the moonlight weaves its lace,</div> <div class="verse00">And a friend’s is every face,</div> <div class="verse00">And this land, need I repeat,</div> <div class="verse00">Is of dreams?</div> <div class="verse00">Here crystal streams</div> <div class="verse00">Lose their way, as from the throne,</div> <div class="verse00">In this country all my own.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! the elevating journey!</div> <div class="verse00">Toward the zenith now I bend,</div> <div class="verse00">Far above the mundane sphere,</div> <div class="verse00">Stars like mighty worlds appear.</div> <div class="verse00">Losing sight of home and friends,</div> <div class="verse00">Higher still the path ascends.</div> <div class="verse00">Heaven is dawning very near;</div> <div class="verse00">But I pause,</div> <div class="verse00">Alas! because</div> <div class="verse00">To a mortal such as I,</div> <div class="verse00">Heaven an entrance must deny.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78">[Pg 78]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i079.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="42" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Lost_Poem">The Lost Poem.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-l.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">L</span>ONG</strong> ago beside my window, with an open manuscript,</div> <div class="verse02">I sat looking on a forest that with gold and brown was tipped,</div> <div class="verse00">Heeding nothing save the sighing of my own heart and the trees,</div> <div class="verse00">When into the open lattice like a whisper came the breeze.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Lingered at my lips a moment, past my temple then it crept,</div> <div class="verse00">And from out of my listless fingers an unfinished poem swept:</div> <div class="verse00">“Stop!” I cried unto a footman that was passing on the street,</div> <div class="verse00">“I will give you thirty shillings if you’ll bring me back that sheet.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But he gazed into the heavens as he would upon a kite,</div> <div class="verse00">And I watched it sally upward, fading faster from my sight;</div> <div class="verse00">Then I said unto a swallow that flew by on rapid wing,</div> <div class="verse00">“Open wide I’ll throw the granary if my poem back you’ll bring.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But he only flew the faster, and was soon beyond my sight;</div> <div class="verse00">And the daylight vanished from me, and to mock me sent the night.</div> <div class="verse00">O! there’s naught can daunt a spirit when the inner heart’s afire,</div> <div class="verse00">And the darkness sent upon me only did my aim inspire.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I sought an humble dwelling, to a fortune-teller went,</div> <div class="verse00">And I tarried with the gipsy till the night was almost spent,</div> <div class="verse00">But I left her door disheartened; for she only said to me:</div> <div class="verse00">“Take this, search, and when you’ve found it, send or fetch again the key.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“But,” said I, “’tis lost in nature, in the sky or hills among,”</div> <div class="verse00">And the key back in her shanty with an angry word I flung;</div> <div class="verse00">For prophetic seemed her language, and my purposes were mocked,</div> <div class="verse00">If henceforth the heart of nature, Fate against my own had locked.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“Take it, search,” again she muttered, as I started to depart;</div> <div class="verse00">“And be careful how you use it; for it fits the human heart.”</div> <div class="verse00">In her hand I dropped a coin, and before the eye of day</div> <div class="verse00">Peeped from out the morning’s cradle I was far upon my way.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Like the breath of early roses, like the whisper of a bird,</div> <div class="verse00">From a little maiden passing, a sweet laugh methought I heard.</div> <div class="verse00">“She has found it,” I repeated, “there’s no use for any key.”</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79">[Pg 79]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">Said the pretty little damsel, “My heart’s open, don’t you see?”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Yes, I saw, and there were treasures such as kings would love to own,</div> <div class="verse00">Who would sacrifice to gain them e’en a jeweled crown and throne—</div> <div class="verse00">Buds and blossoms, song and laughter, humming-birds and butterflies,</div> <div class="verse00">Singing brooks and sparkling fountains there, and peaceful were the skies.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But the poem it was missing; so I journeyed slow along,</div> <div class="verse00">Till I heard a mother singing to her babe a cradle song;</div> <div class="verse00">And I tried to get permission in her heart to fit the key,</div> <div class="verse00">But the lullaby continued: “Do not interrupt,” said she.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Next I hailed a youth that passed me, and his face was wond’rous fair,</div> <div class="verse00">And I searched long through his heart’s book, but the poem was not there;</div> <div class="verse00">“It is lost!” I cried with sorrow, as Despair held out her cup,</div> <div class="verse00">And I quaffed the bitter liquid, and the idle search gave up.</div> <div class="verse00"><span class="spread">* * * * * * *</span></div> <div class="verse00">Years have passed, and just this morning I was called beside a bed,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the sheet lay still and sober over an old lover spread;</div> <div class="verse00">Sad and pallid were his features, clever, too, Death’s new disguise,</div> <div class="verse00">But I read the old, old secret, even in his half-closed eyes.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then a thought—“The key,” I whispered, lest I should be overheard,</div> <div class="verse00">And I sought the heart, unlocked it; found my poem—every word.</div> <div class="verse00">Oft revised it was, and polished, wore the features, too, of Fame;</div> <div class="verse00">And I read with strange emotion, just below inscribed my name.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">O, it was a trying moment! If the poem I should claim,</div> <div class="verse00">I could mount upon the ladder to the topmost round of fame;</div> <div class="verse00">But my evil spirit yielded; for I could not rob the dead,</div> <div class="verse00">So I locked the sacred prison, and above it bowed my head.</div> <div class="verse00">Rather would I find engraven in a steadfast heart my name,</div> <div class="verse00">Than in shining words enroll it high upon the tower of fame.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i080.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="35" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80">[Pg 80]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i081.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="98" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Maple_Leaf">A Maple Leaf. <small><br/> TO M. B. S.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-g.jpg" width-obs="22" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">G</span>LANCING</strong> o’er a childish volume where sweet thoughts like blossoms lay,</div> <div class="verse02">There between two oft read pages, a pressed wreath I found to-day.</div> <div class="verse00">Golden-rod and aster flowers lay with bloom all crushed and dead,</div> <div class="verse00">But a maple leaf among them still retained its gold and red.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">In my hand I took the treasure, held it up before my face,</div> <div class="verse00">And the sunlight, then declining, solved its geometric grace.</div> <div class="verse00">Many a road and by-path meeting proved the interwoven veins;</div> <div class="verse00">And a forest rose before me, flaming like my window panes.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">As a vision that is pictured by an angel in the night,</div> <div class="verse00">Soon a figure, sometime vanished, rose to my exultant sight.</div> <div class="verse00">Like a goddess of enchantment, there she stood beneath the trees,</div> <div class="verse00">And her face was like a lily, and her eyes like summer seas.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then I thought, “For me she’s waiting”—so I glanced off to the right,</div> <div class="verse00">For I feared it all a fancy, but I found my home in sight;</div> <div class="verse00">Heard the town-clock slowly striking, and the same familiar bells,</div> <div class="verse00">Saw the court-house and the churches, and “The Summit,” where she dwells.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I then no longer doubted, down a meadow path I strolled,</div> <div class="verse00">Leading off into the woodland that had stole the sunset’s gold.</div> <div class="verse00">Overhead the birds were flying, but a black winged happy throng</div> <div class="verse00">Paused; for we had been old comrades and they sang a farewell song.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But the thoughts that followed after, though the birds away had flown,</div> <div class="verse00">Were so happy, for she met me, linked her arm within my own.</div> <div class="verse00">Up and down the path we wandered, gathering leaves and grasses gray,</div> <div class="verse00">Until darkness drove the twilight o’er the hill where fled the day.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Darkness! and her face had vanished, all alone I seemed to stand,</div> <div class="verse00">But I heard her step departing, and I grasped again her hand.</div> <div class="verse00">Held it tight, and tighter pressing, in a happy strange belief,</div> <div class="verse00">Till I ’woke, and found that dreaming I had crushed my treasured leaf.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81">[Pg 81]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i082.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="56" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Gallop_With_Santa_Claus">A Gallop With Santa Claus.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> was thinking last night of the children</div> <div class="verse02">Far away in a home that I know,</div> <div class="verse00">Of the dear little girls at the window,</div> <div class="verse02">And the boys out at play in the snow;</div> <div class="verse00">Of the stockings hung up at the chimney,</div> <div class="verse02">Of the little hearts hopeful and glad;</div> <div class="verse00">And thus I kept thinking and thinking,</div> <div class="verse02">Until I grew homesick and sad.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So I turned my eyes out on the landscape,</div> <div class="verse02">As my thoughts were unwilling to go,</div> <div class="verse00">And I saw ’round the curve of a hillock</div> <div class="verse02">Three ponies come, white as the snow;</div> <div class="verse00">A sleigh next appeared and a driver,</div> <div class="verse02">Oh! my heart beat so fast then—because,</div> <div class="verse00">As he drew up the reins at the door-step,</div> <div class="verse02">I found it was old Santa Claus.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Such shaking of hands and such greetings</div> <div class="verse02">I fear I shall nevermore see;</div> <div class="verse00">For every big doll in his wagon</div> <div class="verse02">Was looking and laughing at me.</div> <div class="verse00">“No minutes to lose,” said old Santa,</div> <div class="verse02">“I’ve hundreds of miles yet to go.</div> <div class="verse00">Will you please to partake of my journey,</div> <div class="verse02">And gallop with me o’er the snow?”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">No sooner than said I was seated,</div> <div class="verse02">All ’round me he folded the fur.</div> <div class="verse00">He made a loose rein for the ponies,</div> <div class="verse02">And urged them with whip and with spur.</div> <div class="verse00">Away and away o’er the country</div> <div class="verse02">We flew like the glances of light,</div> <div class="verse00">Down streets that were blazing with bonfires,</div> <div class="verse02">On, on through the snow and the night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then all of a sudden he halted</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82">[Pg 82]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">In front of a house old and dark.</div> <div class="verse00">There was no friendly ray at the window,</div> <div class="verse02">And on the hearth-stone not a spark.</div> <div class="verse00">But he entered, and, by a dim lantern</div> <div class="verse02">That swung from his new scarlet cap,</div> <div class="verse00">I saw the sad face of a woman</div> <div class="verse02">Asleep, and a babe on her lap.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And two pretty faces beside her,</div> <div class="verse02">A pillow of straw almost hid,</div> <div class="verse00">But the little hands looked as if frozen</div> <div class="verse02">That lay on the patched cover-lid.</div> <div class="verse00">A snow-cloud had sifted its samples,</div> <div class="verse02">Of eider-down over their feet,</div> <div class="verse00">And a star, looking in through the shingles,</div> <div class="verse02">Was spreading o’er them a bright sheet.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Old Santa had lost not a moment.</div> <div class="verse02">A cedar tree suddenly sprung</div> <div class="verse00">Into life just in front of the children,</div> <div class="verse02">With pop-corn and bright ribbons strung.</div> <div class="verse00">Some tiny wax candles were lighted,</div> <div class="verse02">To chase off the thoughts of the night;</div> <div class="verse00">And the dollies had met in the tree-top</div> <div class="verse02">To dance in their dresses of white.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A kite that could climb into cloud-land</div> <div class="verse02">Hung low, and a new picture-book;</div> <div class="verse00">A street-car “wound up” for its journey,</div> <div class="verse02">And a little boat built for the brook.</div> <div class="verse00">Oh! all kinds of candy he left them</div> <div class="verse02">That ever I tasted, or you;</div> <div class="verse00">And under the tree there were apples</div> <div class="verse02">And peanuts—a bucket or two.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">He built them a fire, and dresses</div> <div class="verse02">Were left, made of flannel so warm;</div> <div class="verse00">And, with many nice greetings and wishes,</div> <div class="verse02">We galloped away through the storm.</div> <div class="verse00">Away, and away sped the ponies,</div> <div class="verse02">So fast that none could o’ertake—</div> <div class="verse00">So fast (it was told me this morning),</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83">[Pg 83]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">We looked like a winged snow-flake.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But soon at a homestead we halted,</div> <div class="verse02">Old Santa said I must alight,</div> <div class="verse00">To see if the children were sleeping,</div> <div class="verse02">And leave them whatever was right.</div> <div class="verse00">So I crept to the casement—it opened,</div> <div class="verse02">And I saw what I ne’er shall forget—</div> <div class="verse00">Those darlings there slumbering sweetly,</div> <div class="verse02">The thoughts of the night-fall had met.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">We gave them all kinds of nice presents,</div> <div class="verse02">What they were, it is useless to say;</div> <div class="verse00">For they’ve found them and now are rejoicing,</div> <div class="verse02">And happy this glad holiday.</div> <div class="verse00">So children, be kind to each other,</div> <div class="verse02">Be gentle and loving—because</div> <div class="verse00">I may be invited next Christmas</div> <div class="verse02">To gallop with old Santa Claus.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i084.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="61" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Home_Memories">Home Memories.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> am thinking of a cottage</div> <div class="verse02">Where the roses used to bloom,</div> <div class="verse00">How they talked beside the pavement</div> <div class="verse02">In low whispers of perfume,</div> <div class="verse00">Or climbed up beside the window</div> <div class="verse02">To look in my little room.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I am thinking of the door-way</div> <div class="verse02">Where the vine I used to train,</div> <div class="verse00">That snowed down its flaky petals</div> <div class="verse02">With a pleasant summer rain;</div> <div class="verse00">Where I used to sit and listen</div> <div class="verse02">To the old mill’s low refrain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I’m thinking of the sunflower, too,</div> <div class="verse02">That towered above the gate;</div> <div class="verse00">Of the friends who called me hither</div> <div class="verse02">When the day was cool and late.</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! those hours seem so distant</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84">[Pg 84]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">And the year, an ancient date.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I am thinking of the grape-vine</div> <div class="verse02">Where the crippled robin fed,</div> <div class="verse00">How he lingered there each morning</div> <div class="verse02">’Till fresh crumbs for him were spread.</div> <div class="verse00">Is he feeding there this summer</div> <div class="verse02">From a stranger’s hand, instead?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I am thinking of the children</div> <div class="verse02">Who crept to the little yard,</div> <div class="verse00">Begging me to grant permission</div> <div class="verse02">That they play upon the sward.</div> <div class="verse00">Could I bar them from the entry?</div> <div class="verse02">Thus might Heaven me discard.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I am thinking of a morning</div> <div class="verse02">That wrung from my heart a sigh,</div> <div class="verse00">When I kissed warm lips that trembled,</div> <div class="verse02">With a tear-drop in my eye;</div> <div class="verse00">While I closed our cottage windows</div> <div class="verse02">And pronounced the word—good-bye.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i085.jpg" width-obs="75" height-obs="103" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85">[Pg 85]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i086a.jpg" width-obs="341" height-obs="48" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Sunshine_and_Shadow">Sunshine and Shadow.</h2> <div class="wrapfull"> <ANTIMG class="wrapfull" src="images/i086b.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="122" alt="" /></div> <div class="wrap"> <ANTIMG class="wrap" src="images/i086c.jpg" width-obs="217" height-obs="268" alt="" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> passed a pretty cottage place,</div> <div class="verse00x">A rose looked from the door</div> <div class="verse00x">And smiled so sweetly in my face</div> <div class="verse00x">I paused the house before.</div> <div class="verse00x">The honeysuckle from the wall</div> <div class="verse00x">Threw down a welcome tear,</div> <div class="verse00x">The breeze came rushing through the hall</div> <div class="verse00x">And whispered, “Tarry here,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“For all within is peace and love;”</div> <div class="verse02">So through the curtain’s lace</div> <div class="verse00">I glanced the reckless words to prove,</div> <div class="verse02">And saw a lover’s face</div> <div class="verse00">Bent close above two eyes of blue.</div> <div class="verse02">Why should I dim their day?</div> <div class="verse00">Across the pane the blind I drew,</div> <div class="verse02">And softly crept away.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I went again, one summer eve;</div> <div class="verse02">The rose blushed at the door</div> <div class="verse00">But smiled as sweetly to receive</div> <div class="verse02">Me as it did before;</div> <div class="verse00">The breeze came out as joyously,</div> <div class="verse02">And lingered at my side,</div> <div class="verse00">And murmured: “Tarry now and see</div> <div class="verse02">Our happy groom and bride.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“O, no!” I said, “some other day</div> <div class="verse02">I’ll call the pair to see.”</div> <div class="verse00">But as I turned to go away</div> <div class="verse02">They both looked out at me.</div> <div class="verse00">O! what a light of hope and love</div> <div class="verse02">Their features then o’erspread;</div> <div class="verse00">And a shekinah from above</div> <div class="verse02">Seemed on the cottage shed.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86">[Pg 86]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Years crept away. When next I came</div> <div class="verse02">Before that open door,</div> <div class="verse00">A little child pronounced my name</div> <div class="verse02">That golden tresses wore.</div> <div class="verse00">“Will you come in?” she gladly cried,</div> <div class="verse02">And opened wide the gate.</div> <div class="verse00">“My little one,” I slow replied,</div> <div class="verse02">“The day is low and late.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“To-morrow when the sun is bright,</div> <div class="verse02">I’ll come and play with you;</div> <div class="verse00">Too chilly now, the falling night,</div> <div class="verse02">Too damp the evening dew.”</div> <div class="verse00">And so I did. I often trod</div> <div class="verse02">Along the side yard there;</div> <div class="verse00">And found that fresher grew the sod,</div> <div class="verse02">The sky more bright and fair.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I once had said that every rose</div> <div class="verse02">Held just a briar or two,</div> <div class="verse00">And every river as it flows</div> <div class="verse02">A dark wave with the blue;</div> <div class="verse00">But ’twas not thus I found it here,</div> <div class="verse02">The world that night I’d tell</div> <div class="verse00">That I had found a sky so clear</div> <div class="verse02">That rain drops never fell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Thus musing on that sweet child’s face</div> <div class="verse02">That night I could not sleep,</div> <div class="verse00">A shadow seemed the light to chase</div> <div class="verse02">As storms the ocean sweep;</div> <div class="verse00">And when the stars forsook the sky</div> <div class="verse02">And birds their matins sang</div> <div class="verse00">I strolled again the cottage by</div> <div class="verse02">And loud the door-bell rang.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The rose had dropped its leaves and died,</div> <div class="verse02">I heard within a sob.</div> <div class="verse00">What did it mean? The winds replied</div> <div class="verse02">“Crape hangs upon the knob.”</div> <div class="verse00">Softly I raised the window’s lace—</div> <div class="verse02">The little child was dead—</div> <div class="verse00">I threw a flower across her face,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87">[Pg 87]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse02">And from the cottage fled.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I never will go back again</div> <div class="verse02">Or push the blinds apart—</div> <div class="verse00">I sought a sunshine for my pen,</div> <div class="verse02">Found shadows for my heart.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i088a.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="85" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Only_a_Fern_Leaf">Only a Fern Leaf. <small><br/> TO H. M.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-o.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">O</span>NLY</strong> a fern leaf, darling,</div> <div class="verse02">Yellow and dry with age,</div> <div class="verse00">Only a date recorded</div> <div class="verse02">Down at the ending page.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Only a breath from the mountain,</div> <div class="verse02">A song with the summer wed;</div> <div class="verse00">Only the voice of a fountain,</div> <div class="verse02">Only a dream that is dead.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Only a faded morning,</div> <div class="verse02">With a shadow falling through,</div> <div class="verse00">Only a hint of warning—</div> <div class="verse02">A cloud in the far off blue.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Only a word of parting</div> <div class="verse02">Under a starlit sky;</div> <div class="verse00">Only a tear that is starting,</div> <div class="verse02">A long and a last good bye.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Only a face of sorrow</div> <div class="verse02">Turned to a vanished year—</div> <div class="verse00">Only a fern leaf, darling,</div> <div class="verse02">Glued to the pages here.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i088b.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="86" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88">[Pg 88]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i089.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="122" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Dream">A Dream. <small><br/> TO MY FATHER.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-l.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">L</span>ISTEN</strong>, father, while I tell you of a dream I had last night;</div> <div class="verse02">For it was so sweet my childhood home was painted in my sight.</div> <div class="verse00">’Twas the same old frame house, father, hidden by the same old trees,</div> <div class="verse00">Apple, cherry, quince and locust, talking in the same old breeze.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">On the walk I found the cowslip, stolen from “The Old Ravine,”</div> <div class="verse00">And the blue-bell, and the columbine—how near my heart they lean.</div> <div class="verse00">Roses, red as any furnace flame, about me seemed to grow.</div> <div class="verse00">Roses pink as maiden blushes, roses pure and white as snow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">All around the yard I wandered, oh! so long I can not tell,</div> <div class="verse00">Then I paused beneath the apple tree and drank from the old well.</div> <div class="verse00">Through my veins I felt the water coursing like a happy thought,</div> <div class="verse00">And a thousand recollections to my memory then it brought.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Recollections rushing to me swifter than an angel’s wing,</div> <div class="verse00">Recollections slipping from me as a pearl slips from a string.</div> <div class="verse00">Recollections that transfigured me into a little child,</div> <div class="verse00">And the halo shed around me was my father’s happy smile.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">It was such a pretty picture Fancy held before my view,</div> <div class="verse00">I will turn the magic lantern so that you may see it, too.</div> <div class="verse00">It is springtime and the sugar trees have pitched their shady tent,</div> <div class="verse00">Tiny leaves like tiny parasols reach toward the firmament.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Restless swings a childish figure to and fro upon the gate,</div> <div class="verse00">Some one’s coming down the highway—’tis for him she there doth wait.</div> <div class="verse00">Ah! you recognize the picture, I can tell it by your smile;</div> <div class="verse00">You have recognized the sugar trees, and recognized your child.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Through the pasture now we’re strolling, looking down the avenue,</div> <div class="verse00">See you not another picture? Yes; the figures there are two.</div> <div class="verse00">Mother sits upon the portico her knitting in her hand,</div> <div class="verse00">And my brother talks beside her of that wild and Western land</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Where he raced his Indian ponies and lassoed the buffaloes</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89">[Pg 89]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">Oh, it is a perfect wonderland!—this country that he knows.</div> <div class="verse00">But we will not interrupt them; for they do so happy seem—</div> <div class="verse00">So we turn aside and leave them wandering on as in a dream.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then I led you up the hillside and we sat upon the “mound.”</div> <div class="verse00">Oh! there never was before or since so pretty a view spread ’round.</div> <div class="verse00">Just below, the tranquil water of the clear pond seemed to win</div> <div class="verse00">Every cloud that floated over, and the heavens lay within.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then the meadow, where the clover bloomed, and where you stacked the hay,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a field within a picture book, before us there it lay;</div> <div class="verse00">Then beyond, the barn and orchard, and the valley that I love—</div> <div class="verse00">Oh! it all seemed like a painting let down by the Hand above.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But a thought came rushing to me of a fairy that you know;</div> <div class="verse00">For she lived there in the valley and her name it was Echo.</div> <div class="verse00">So I laughed and called unto her just as loud as I could call,</div> <div class="verse00">But the voice that she threw back to me was not a child’s at all.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">No; it was a woman’s voice; I awoke then with a start,</div> <div class="verse00">And I found the king beside me that dethroned you in my heart.</div> <div class="verse00">Then a tear fell on the pillow, not a briny, bitter tear,</div> <div class="verse00">Why? you ask—because the dream was gone that I have copied here.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i090.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="87" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Those_Soft_Airs_She_Played">Those Soft Airs She Played. <small><br/> TO M. B. S.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HOSE</strong> soft airs she played—through my mem’ry they glide</div> <div class="verse02">Like a cloud-shadow crossing the plain;</div> <div class="verse00">The sun follows often, the wind at his side,</div> <div class="verse00">Then a whisper that never the roses denied,</div> <div class="verse02">And a sound like a light fall of rain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Grander music she plays—music weird and sublime,</div> <div class="verse02">Thunder toned, like the sound of the sea,</div> <div class="verse00">That rolleth away like the surges of time;</div> <div class="verse00">But, to quicken my thoughts and to sweeten my rhyme,</div> <div class="verse02">She always played soft airs for me.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90">[Pg 90]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Faint whispers that blend with the deep forest’s sound,</div> <div class="verse02">From which a wild fawn would not flee,</div> <div class="verse00">And sweet as the brook that the summer has found,</div> <div class="verse00">When singing its song soft and glad underground,</div> <div class="verse02">And carrying its heart to the sea....</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A movement then mingles like those that are heard</div> <div class="verse02">When the trees toss their shade to the eaves;</div> <div class="verse00">A pause and a tremble, as of a sweet word,</div> <div class="verse00">Or the dream-haunted wing of a night-hidden bird</div> <div class="verse02">That is shaking the dew from the leaves.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Then silence, that even a word would profane—</div> <div class="verse02">Silence, holding some thoughts heaven-born,</div> <div class="verse00">That only her fingers a moment can chain;</div> <div class="verse00">Up, up to the skies they have wandered again,</div> <div class="verse02">Like a prayer holy spoken at morn.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Those soft airs she played in the dim lighted room,</div> <div class="verse02">With her heart in the past far away—</div> <div class="verse00">Ah, what would I give if to-night, through the gloom,</div> <div class="verse00">Along with the budding and bursting of bloom,</div> <div class="verse02">They now past my window would stray.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Alas! vain the thought, and as vain sounds the sigh,</div> <div class="verse02">Long distance my wish has delayed;</div> <div class="verse00">But we sit in the twilight—my mem’ry and I—</div> <div class="verse00">And listen and linger, we scarcely know why,</div> <div class="verse02">Unless for those soft airs she played.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i091.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="105" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91">[Pg 91]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i092.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="To_Albert">To Albert.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HOU</strong> art going from us, Albert,</div> <div class="verse02">Going far away from me,</div> <div class="verse00">Where I can not hear thy prattle,</div> <div class="verse02">And thy face I can not see.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Back into the Southern country,</div> <div class="verse02">Thou art going—there to roam,</div> <div class="verse00">Where my heart began its singing—</div> <div class="verse02">In the old Kentucky home.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Lonely all the days will linger,</div> <div class="verse02">When I miss your little face;</div> <div class="verse00">Shadows gray, from out the hours,</div> <div class="verse02">All the sunbeams soon will chase.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Dim will seem the sunny window,</div> <div class="verse02">Where the pansy blossom grows,</div> <div class="verse00">And no restless little fingers</div> <div class="verse02">Will disturb the opening rose.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Soon the playthings will be missing,</div> <div class="verse02">Soon they gathered up must be—</div> <div class="verse00">Thou art going from us, Albert,</div> <div class="verse02">Going far away from me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Soon the little boy that vexed me,</div> <div class="verse02">When I tried to read and write,</div> <div class="verse00">Will be gone. No one will listen</div> <div class="verse02">When I sing my songs at night.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Soon the halls will lose their echo,</div> <div class="verse02">And the yard grow silent, too,</div> <div class="verse00">And the pretty face will vanish,</div> <div class="verse02">With those wondrous eyes of blue.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So good-bye, my little darling;</div> <div class="verse02">All these tears have been for thee—</div> <div class="verse00">Thou art going from us, Albert,</div> <div class="verse02">Going far away from me.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92">[Pg 92]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i093.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="54" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Reunion_of_the_Flowers">The Reunion of the Flowers.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> few of the springtime flowers,</div> <div class="verse02">And the summer blossoms sweet,</div> <div class="verse00">Agreed, at the early autumn,</div> <div class="verse02">In a locust grove to meet,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And there to hold communion,</div> <div class="verse02">By the light of the setting sun,</div> <div class="verse00">And each relate or mention</div> <div class="verse02">Some kind act they had done.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And he whose deed was noblest</div> <div class="verse02">Should, at the close of day,</div> <div class="verse00">Be colonel of the regiment,</div> <div class="verse02">And lead the ranks away.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">So, one by one I watched them</div> <div class="verse02">Assemble where the trees</div> <div class="verse00">Had lowered their limbs to listen</div> <div class="verse02">And halted every breeze.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A Rose in the richest satin,</div> <div class="verse02">With a bud to her bonnet tied,</div> <div class="verse00">Was first to break the silence</div> <div class="verse02">That reigned on every side.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“I lived with a lovely lady,</div> <div class="verse02">In a handsome house of brick,</div> <div class="verse00">And went with her each morning,</div> <div class="verse02">To wait upon the sick.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“I’ve leaned beside the pillows,</div> <div class="verse02">Where wounded soldiers lay,</div> <div class="verse00">And I wept at the funeral service,</div> <div class="verse02">Of an orphan child to-day.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“I bloomed in an humble garden,</div> <div class="verse02">Where an old man used to look,”</div> <div class="verse00">Said the Johnquil, “ere the snow-drift</div> <div class="verse02">His window-sill forsook.”</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93">[Pg 93]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“A poor bee shivered homeward</div> <div class="verse02">One night,” the Tulip said,</div> <div class="verse00">“Fell through my scarlet curtains,</div> <div class="verse02">And died upon my bed.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“I looked in at a window,</div> <div class="verse02">And made two lovers kiss,”</div> <div class="verse00">The Pansy owned, and laughing</div> <div class="verse02">Said it was not amiss.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“I went into a palace,”</div> <div class="verse02">The Lily then replied,</div> <div class="verse00">“And held the veil that evening</div> <div class="verse02">Of a happy-hearted bride.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“I sweetened the room of a poet,</div> <div class="verse02">And o’er his coffin wept,”</div> <div class="verse00">The Heliotrope low whispered,</div> <div class="verse02">And back in the shadows crept.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“O, that was very noble,”</div> <div class="verse02">Exclaimed the Golden-rod,</div> <div class="verse00">“I tried to gather the sunshine</div> <div class="verse02">And hold it up to God.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“To make the world less sober,</div> <div class="verse02">To make the heart less sad,</div> <div class="verse00">Was all the mission, brethren,</div> <div class="verse02">Your humble servant had.”</div> <div class="verse00"><span class="spread">* * * * *</span></div> <div class="verse00">In the ranks of that floral army</div> <div class="verse02">That marched at the close of day,</div> <div class="verse00">That sunny-featured blossom</div> <div class="verse02">Was the one that led the way.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i094.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="26" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94">[Pg 94]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i095.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="46" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Children_of_the_Brain">Children of the Brain.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-o.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">O</span>UR</strong> thoughts—the children of the brain—</div> <div class="verse02">Are born for us some good to gain,</div> <div class="verse00">And if we rear them just and right,</div> <div class="verse00">They’ll seek the day instead of night.</div> <div class="verse00">Long in the harvest field they’ll work—</div> <div class="verse00">Brave laborers that do not shirk,</div> <div class="verse00">And they will reap just what we sow,</div> <div class="verse00">As written you will find below.</div> <div class="verse00"><span class="spread">* * * * *</span></div> <div class="verse00">I sent them forth into the world,</div> <div class="verse00">Some thoughts that long my heart impearled.</div> <div class="verse00">Their countenance was of a light</div> <div class="verse00">That beamed upon me through the night.</div> <div class="verse00">The features were like mine, perchance,</div> <div class="verse00">With part of heaven hid in the glance;</div> <div class="verse00">And the apparel that they wore</div> <div class="verse00">My fingers long had labored o’er.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A vine ran through the tunic’s hem</div> <div class="verse00">That wilted not though broke the stem,</div> <div class="verse00">And all the undergarments showed</div> <div class="verse00">The time and care on them bestowed.</div> <div class="verse00">Some of the moonbeams took a place</div> <div class="verse00">Within the frill about the face;</div> <div class="verse00">And, stars that bright as Lyra glowed,</div> <div class="verse00">The overdress and mantle showed.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The sandals that encased the feet</div> <div class="verse00">Were fashioned for a journey fleet,</div> <div class="verse00">And pinions, like a sail unfurled,</div> <div class="verse00">I saw outspread before the world,</div> <div class="verse00">With promises to come again</div> <div class="verse00">And glorify the parent pen.</div> <div class="verse00">I tore apart the silken skein</div> <div class="verse00">And let them drift from out my brain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Where are they tarrying to-night?</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95">[Pg 95]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">I see, around a fireside bright,</div> <div class="verse00">One looking in a friendly face.</div> <div class="verse00">How tender seems the warm embrace!</div> <div class="verse00">Now close, close to this loved one’s lip</div> <div class="verse00">’Tis held, and for companionship</div> <div class="verse00">Is nestling down into the heart,</div> <div class="verse00">And of the same becomes a part.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Some beckon me across the seas,</div> <div class="verse00">Are favored by a foreign breeze,</div> <div class="verse00">Are traveling where I can not go,</div> <div class="verse00">Are learning what I ne’er shall know,</div> <div class="verse00">Are praised, perhaps, with offered funds,</div> <div class="verse00">While with them glad the newsboy runs;</div> <div class="verse00">Are welcomed in some palace home,</div> <div class="verse00">And ne’er allowed henceforth to roam.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The one that I had loved the best</div> <div class="verse00">A journey took into the West,</div> <div class="verse00">And by a friend it chanced to meet</div> <div class="verse00">Sent home a prairie flower sweet.</div> <div class="verse00">Two stronger ones, the North that sought,</div> <div class="verse00">Some words of love back home have brought;</div> <div class="verse00">They brighten up the lonesome hearth,</div> <div class="verse00">And praise the pen that gave them birth.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And one crept down in Cupid’s coat</div> <div class="verse00">To read a dainty perfumed note,</div> <div class="verse00">And afterward came back to tell</div> <div class="verse00">How sweetly rang the wedding bell.</div> <div class="verse00">Another, with as brave a face,</div> <div class="verse00">Had with a rival run a race;</div> <div class="verse00">It did its best, to gain had tried,</div> <div class="verse00">But came back home, alas! and died.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The tenderest one, perhaps, of all,</div> <div class="verse00">Upon a critic chanced to call;</div> <div class="verse00">He hooted at the homespun gown,</div> <div class="verse00">And bent his bitter, blackest frown</div> <div class="verse00">Upon the waif, and read its fate</div> <div class="verse00">Where winter winds could congregate.</div> <div class="verse00">I thought I heard its funeral bell,</div> <div class="verse00">But where the grave is I’ll not tell.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96">[Pg 96]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I do not know the others’ fate,</div> <div class="verse00">A pauper’s grave may them await.</div> <div class="verse00">The fabric that my hands embossed,</div> <div class="verse00">While Fancy figured high the cost,</div> <div class="verse00">May trail, to-night, some filthy street</div> <div class="verse00">Where sin and shame together meet,</div> <div class="verse00">And the loved strains from my heart’s lyre</div> <div class="verse00">Be sung around an outcast’s fire.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">They may attain a higher sphere,</div> <div class="verse00">Where flows the penitential tear,</div> <div class="verse00">And point the wanderers they find</div> <div class="verse00">Upon the paths that heavenward wind.</div> <div class="verse00">God grant their mission may be such!</div> <div class="verse00">That all sad hearts they’ll lightly touch,</div> <div class="verse00">And spread upon the ugly wound</div> <div class="verse00">A balm to make them whole and sound.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i097a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="67" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Lily_of_the_Valley">A Lily of the Valley.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-j.jpg" width-obs="15" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">J</span>UST</strong> a breath of fragrance</div> <div class="verse02">On the breeze—alas!</div> <div class="verse00">A lily of the valley</div> <div class="verse02">Dying in the grass.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Just a recollection</div> <div class="verse02">Followed with a sigh;</div> <div class="verse00">Just a teardrop dripping</div> <div class="verse02">Down the cheek, and why?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">May 16, 1887.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i097b.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="30" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97">[Pg 97]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i098.jpg" width-obs="350" height-obs="51" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Lines_to_the_Old_Year">Lines to the Old Year.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-f.jpg" width-obs="20" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">F</span>AREWELL</strong>, Old Year, the shades are growing deep,</div> <div class="verse02">Thou art dethroned and vanishes your power;</div> <div class="verse00">I sit alone with folded hands and weep,</div> <div class="verse02">While close the minutes chase our parting hour.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Your lips are dumb, and with a feeble hand</div> <div class="verse02">You turn the pages of the year’s great book,</div> <div class="verse00">While my wet cheeks are with an odor fanned,</div> <div class="verse02">Like that the summer breeze from violets shook.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I gaze into the volume. Undiscerned</div> <div class="verse02">Some scenes advance, like phantoms hurry by,</div> <div class="verse00">And thoughts look from the leaves now swifter turned</div> <div class="verse02">As meaningless as would a stranger’s eye.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I meet familiar names in Death’s long list,</div> <div class="verse02">I pass new graves where tears have thawed the snows,</div> <div class="verse00">I search my heart lest something I have missed,</div> <div class="verse02">But in its garden find no dying rose.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Thou hast been kind to me; no marble urn</div> <div class="verse02">Chills the warm pulses of my heart to night,</div> <div class="verse00">And from the thought my pen doth gladly turn</div> <div class="verse02">To offer homage ere you take your flight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Bright recollections thou hast left instead,</div> <div class="verse02">That twinkle in the firmament of thought,</div> <div class="verse00">And lover-like I sit and gaze o’erhead</div> <div class="verse02">Upon the starry gems thy hand has wrought.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Far down the by-path of a summer dream,</div> <div class="verse02">Glad voices call and fingers beckon me—</div> <div class="verse00">An oar dips music from a moonlit stream,</div> <div class="verse02">Where in thy prime I sailed, Old Year, with thee</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And now, e’en in the shadow of thy hearse,</div> <div class="verse02">Ungarland save with fated mistletoe,</div> <div class="verse00">While midnight fiends the hours call like a curse,</div> <div class="verse02">You clasp my hand and smiling on me—go.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98">[Pg 98]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Farewell! A friend thou’st been to me, and I</div> <div class="verse02">Shall wander through the burial ground of years,</div> <div class="verse00">And often with an introspective eye</div> <div class="verse02">Search out thy grave and water it with tears.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i099a.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="61" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Why_I_Smile">Why I Smile.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> smile because the world is fair;</div> <div class="verse02">Because the sky is blue.</div> <div class="verse00">Because I find, no matter where</div> <div class="verse02">I go, a friend that’s true.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I smile because the earth is green,</div> <div class="verse02">The sun so near and bright,</div> <div class="verse00">Because the days that o’er us lean</div> <div class="verse02">Are full of warmth and light.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I smile as past the yards I go,</div> <div class="verse02">Though strange and new the place,</div> <div class="verse00">The violets seem my step to know,</div> <div class="verse02">And look up in my face.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I smile to hear the robin’s note.</div> <div class="verse02">He comes so newly dressed,</div> <div class="verse00">A love song throbbing in his throat,</div> <div class="verse02">A rose pinned on his breast.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And so the truth I’ll not disown,</div> <div class="verse02">Because the spring is nigh;</div> <div class="verse00">My heart has somewhat better grown,</div> <div class="verse02">And I forget to sigh.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Mt. Vernon, Ill.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i099b.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="49" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99">[Pg 99]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i100.jpg" width-obs="350" height-obs="60" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="My_Phantom_Ships">My Phantom Ships.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-i.jpg" width-obs="16" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">I</span></strong> heard the plunging of the sea</div> <div class="verse02">Like a wild steed pursuing me,</div> <div class="verse00">And dark and frothy was the main;</div> <div class="verse00">But suddenly a checking rein</div> <div class="verse00">Seemed drawn, and panting on the shore,</div> <div class="verse00">I heard the billows’ frightful roar.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">My dream betook a different hue,</div> <div class="verse00">Caught from the ocean’s changeful blue.</div> <div class="verse00">A door was opened in my heart,</div> <div class="verse00">From which I saw each fear depart,</div> <div class="verse00">And there from some far, happy isle,</div> <div class="verse00">The sea breeze came as would a smile</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! it was sweet to wander there,</div> <div class="verse00">The sky o’erhanging still and bare.</div> <div class="verse00">A cloud, in some soft raiment dressed,</div> <div class="verse00">Leaned like a bride upon the west;</div> <div class="verse00">The sea-gulls floated on the breeze</div> <div class="verse00">Like blossoms blown from April trees.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">The wind just kissed by summer’s mouth</div> <div class="verse00">Walked like a lover from the South;</div> <div class="verse00">And jewels from a sunbeam’s hand</div> <div class="verse00">Were sprinkled on the snowy sand;</div> <div class="verse00">The breakers ran along the beach,</div> <div class="verse00">And scattered shells within my reach.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I stooped and held one to my ear,</div> <div class="verse00">And listened as to voices dear;</div> <div class="verse00">And then methought far, far away,</div> <div class="verse00">Where purple mists made dim the day,</div> <div class="verse00">I saw the motion of a ship</div> <div class="verse00">That from the heavens seemed to slip.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">On, on it came with fluttering sail,</div> <div class="verse00">Strong blew the steady ocean gale.</div> <div class="verse00">The waves were running thick and high,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100">[Pg 100]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">And kept the ship close to the sky;</div> <div class="verse00">It seemed a picture on the sea,</div> <div class="verse00">“A picture,” thought I, “can it be?”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But from the waves the wind withdrew</div> <div class="verse00">And brought the sailors close to view.</div> <div class="verse00">The pilot pointed to the shore,</div> <div class="verse00">And then to gems and shining ore</div> <div class="verse00">Piled up against the good ship’s side</div> <div class="verse00">That leaned so brave upon the tide.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Oh! there were silks of colors soft,</div> <div class="verse00">And plumes that proudly waved aloft;</div> <div class="verse00">And there were jewels, bags of gold,</div> <div class="verse00">From caves o’er which the water rolled,</div> <div class="verse00">And coral crowns—gifts of the sea—</div> <div class="verse00">And all of this for whom? <i>For me.</i></div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">With open arms to meet the ship</div> <div class="verse00">I ran, and proudly curled my lip.</div> <div class="verse00">No one should know from whence it came,</div> <div class="verse00">And none should share my wealth and fame.</div> <div class="verse00">My gowns of silk with me should roam,</div> <div class="verse00">My gold I’d closet at my home.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Ah, me! I knew not what I thought.</div> <div class="verse00">The ship was by a whirlwind caught.</div> <div class="verse00">It staggered out upon the sea—</div> <div class="verse00">I heard the sailors cursing me;</div> <div class="verse00">A flash fell from the lowering night,</div> <div class="verse00">And down the brave ship sank from sight.</div> <div class="verse00"><span class="spread">* * * * *</span></div> <div class="verse00">I walk again upon the sands</div> <div class="verse00">With aching heart and empty hands.</div> <div class="verse00">Sometimes a piece of broken mast</div> <div class="verse00">Upon the tide goes sailing past;</div> <div class="verse00">And, where the sun so friendly shone,</div> <div class="verse00">A shadow on the sand has grown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A strange and half-distracted dream</div> <div class="verse00">Comes just behind the sea-gull’s scream.</div> <div class="verse00">The sinking ship again I see,</div> <div class="verse00">The sailors hurl their oaths at me,</div> <div class="verse00">And like an echo from the grave</div> <div class="verse00">Is the sad song of wind and wave.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101">[Pg 101]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">But somewhere, under bluer skies,</div> <div class="verse00">Another ship in harbor lies.</div> <div class="verse00">Its flags are flying free and fast,</div> <div class="verse00">The sails are white, and strong the mast.</div> <div class="verse00">’Tis loaded, too, with precious freight,</div> <div class="verse00">And for the same I stand and wait.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">When it comes home I’ll happy be,</div> <div class="verse00">And all share my joy with me.</div> <div class="verse00">My wines at other feasts I’ll pour,</div> <div class="verse00">The sorrowful shall smile—yea, more,</div> <div class="verse00">The poor shall not be turned away,</div> <div class="verse00">And one and all shall bless the day.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00"><span class="smcap">Pablo Beach, Fla.</span>, January, 1887.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i102.jpg" width-obs="350" height-obs="48" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Weight_of_a_Word">The Weight of a Word.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-h.jpg" width-obs="24" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">H</span>AVE</strong> you ever thought of the weight of a word</div> <div class="verse02">That falls in the heart like the song of a bird,</div> <div class="verse00">That gladdens the springtime of memory and youth</div> <div class="verse00">And garlands with cedar the banner of Truth,</div> <div class="verse00">That moistens the harvesting spot of the brain</div> <div class="verse00">Like dew-drops that fall on the meadow of grain</div> <div class="verse00">Or that shrivels the germ and destroys the fruit</div> <div class="verse00">And lies like a worm at the lifeless root?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I saw a farmer at break of day</div> <div class="verse00">Hoeing his corn in a careful way;</div> <div class="verse00">An enemy came with a drouth in his eye,</div> <div class="verse00">Discouraged the worker and hurried by.</div> <div class="verse00">The keen-edged blade of the faithful hoe</div> <div class="verse00">Dulled on the earth in the long corn row;</div> <div class="verse00">The weeds sprung up and their feathers tossed</div> <div class="verse00">Over the field and the crop was—<i>lost</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A sailor launched on an angry bay</div> <div class="verse00">When the heavens entombed the face of day</div> <div class="verse00">The wind arose like a beast in pain,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102">[Pg 102]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse00">And shook on the billows his yellow name,</div> <div class="verse00">The storm beat down as if cursed the cloud,</div> <div class="verse00">And the waves held up a dripping shroud—</div> <div class="verse00">But, hark! o’er the waters that wildly raved</div> <div class="verse00">Came a word of cheer and he was—<i>saved</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A poet passed with a song of God</div> <div class="verse00">Hid in his heart like a gem in a clod.</div> <div class="verse00">His lips were framed to pronounce the thought,</div> <div class="verse00">And the music of rhythm its magic wrought;</div> <div class="verse00">Feeble at first was the happy trill,</div> <div class="verse00">Low was the echo that answered the hill,</div> <div class="verse00">But a jealous friend spoke near his side,</div> <div class="verse00">And on his lips the sweet song—<i>died</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A woman paused where a chandelier</div> <div class="verse00">Threw in the darkness its poisoned spear;</div> <div class="verse00">Weary and footsore from journeying long,</div> <div class="verse00">She had strayed unawares from the right to the wrong.</div> <div class="verse00">Angels were beck’ning her back from the den,</div> <div class="verse00">Hell and its demons were beck’ning her in;</div> <div class="verse00">The tone of an urchin, like one who forgives,</div> <div class="verse00">Drew her back and in heaven <i>that</i> sweet word—<i>lives</i>.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Words! Words! They are little, yet mighty and brave;</div> <div class="verse00">They rescue a nation, an empire save;</div> <div class="verse00">They close up the gaps in a fresh bleeding heart</div> <div class="verse00">That sickness and sorrow have severed apart,</div> <div class="verse00">They fall on the path, like a ray of the sun,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the shadows of death lay so heavy upon;</div> <div class="verse00">They lighten the earth over our blessed dead,</div> <div class="verse00">A word that will comfort, oh! leave not unsaid.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i103.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="99" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103">[Pg 103]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i104.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="113" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="An_Apology">An Apology. <small><br/> TO J. D. N.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-m.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">M</span>Y</strong> pen is mournful—you ask why</div> <div class="verse02">When all the time my face is glad,</div> <div class="verse00">And though contentment lights my eye,</div> <div class="verse02">You say my verse is strangely sad;</div> <div class="verse00">So serious that e’en the strain</div> <div class="verse00">You can detect, as on the pane</div> <div class="verse00">You know the patter in the night,</div> <div class="verse00">Although the cloud is hid from sight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">You asked me once to change my tone,</div> <div class="verse02">“To trim my pen for gayer verse,”</div> <div class="verse00">And, laughing, said ’twas like a moan</div> <div class="verse02">That followed close behind a hearse.</div> <div class="verse00">My muse was saddened at the stroke,</div> <div class="verse00">And in my heart new chords awoke,</div> <div class="verse00">Chords that vibrate like the bell</div> <div class="verse00">That tolled one day a funeral knell.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I would not have them otherwise;</div> <div class="verse02">I claim my caged bird’s song more sweet</div> <div class="verse00">Because ’tis sad, than one which tries</div> <div class="verse02">The echo merrier to repeat.</div> <div class="verse00">How quickly I would turn aside,</div> <div class="verse00">And soon forget a boist’rous tide,</div> <div class="verse00">To hear the brooklet, sad and low,</div> <div class="verse00">Sing in a minor key I know.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">I’ll not attempt Hood’s humorous style,</div> <div class="verse02">I do not crave John Gilpin’s ride.</div> <div class="verse00">It was my custom, when a child,</div> <div class="verse02">To linger at my mother’s side</div> <div class="verse00">When she would sing “The Old Church Yard,”</div> <div class="verse00">That told how soft and green its sward.</div> <div class="verse00">“The angels that watched ’round the tomb”</div> <div class="verse00">Crept, as she sang, into our room.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104">[Pg 104]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">’Tis said the clown will never jest</div> <div class="verse02">When folded is the showman’s tent;</div> <div class="verse00">That she who pathos renders best</div> <div class="verse02">Has loudest laugh in merriment.</div> <div class="verse00">Thus, <i>vice versa</i> is the theme,</div> <div class="verse00">Or, “all things are not what they seem.”</div> <div class="verse00">Sadness to Joy is as a twin,</div> <div class="verse00">One rules without, one rules within.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">My life is full of love and joy,</div> <div class="verse02">My heart-strings, though, with sadness tuned.</div> <div class="verse00">Then do not ask me to destroy</div> <div class="verse02">The mournful measures; it would wound</div> <div class="verse00">My Muse—the playmate of my youth—</div> <div class="verse00">Who taught me early many a truth</div> <div class="verse00">From others’ woes, and bid me think</div> <div class="verse00">While she supplied the pen and ink.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i105.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="64" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Speak_Kindly">Speak Kindly.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>PEAK</strong> kindly in the morning,</div> <div class="verse02">When you are leaving home,</div> <div class="verse00">And give the day a lighter heart</div> <div class="verse02">Into the week to roam.</div> <div class="verse00">Leave kind words as mementoes</div> <div class="verse02">To be handled and caressed,</div> <div class="verse00">And watch the noon-time hour arrive</div> <div class="verse02">In gold and tinsel dressed.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Speak kindly in the evening!</div> <div class="verse02">When on the walk is heard</div> <div class="verse00">A tired footstep that you know,</div> <div class="verse02">Speak one refreshing word,</div> <div class="verse00">And see the glad light springing</div> <div class="verse02">From the heart into the eye,</div> <div class="verse00">As sometimes from behind a cloud</div> <div class="verse02">A star leaps to the sky.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105">[Pg 105]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Speak kindly to the children</div> <div class="verse02">That crowd around your chair,</div> <div class="verse00">The tender lips that lean on yours</div> <div class="verse02">Kiss, smooth the flaxen hair;</div> <div class="verse00">Some day a room that’s lonesome</div> <div class="verse02">The little ones may own,</div> <div class="verse00">And home be empty as the nest</div> <div class="verse02">From which the birds have flown.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Speak kindly to the stranger</div> <div class="verse02">Who passes through the town,</div> <div class="verse00">A loving word is light of weight—</div> <div class="verse02">Not so would prove a frown.</div> <div class="verse00">One is a precious jewel</div> <div class="verse02">The heart would grasp in sleep,</div> <div class="verse00">The other like a demon’s gift</div> <div class="verse02">The memory loathes to keep.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Speak kindly to the sorrowful</div> <div class="verse02">Who stand beside the dead,</div> <div class="verse00">The heart can lean against a word</div> <div class="verse02">Though thorny seems the bed.</div> <div class="verse00">And oh, to those discouraged</div> <div class="verse02">Who faint upon the way,</div> <div class="verse00">Stop, stop—if just a moment—</div> <div class="verse02">And something kindly say.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Speak kindly to the fallen ones,</div> <div class="verse02">Your voice may help them rise;</div> <div class="verse00">A word right-spoken oft unclasps</div> <div class="verse02">The gate beyond the skies.</div> <div class="verse00">Speak kindly, and the future</div> <div class="verse02">You’ll find God looking through!</div> <div class="verse00">Speak of another as you’d have</div> <div class="verse02">Him always speak of you.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i106.jpg" width-obs="150" height-obs="25" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106">[Pg 106]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i107.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="110" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Those_Willing_Hands">Those Willing Hands <small><br/> IN MEMORY OF MISS FANNIE STEVENS.</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-t.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">T</span>HOSE</strong> willing hands—they’re still to-night—</div> <div class="verse02">The life has from them fled;</div> <div class="verse00">They’re folded from the longing sight,</div> <div class="verse02">So cold and pale and dead.</div> <div class="verse00">The busy veins have idle grown,</div> <div class="verse02">Like a long famished rill,</div> <div class="verse00">That once in such an eager tone</div> <div class="verse02">Called soft from hill to hill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Dear hands, I’ve felt their pressure oft,</div> <div class="verse02">In a sad time gone by;</div> <div class="verse00">They moved about the years as soft</div> <div class="verse02">As clouds move through the sky.</div> <div class="verse00">They screened the rainstorm from my heart,</div> <div class="verse02">And let the moonlight in,</div> <div class="verse00">And showed, while shadows fell athwart,</div> <div class="verse02">Tracks where the sun had been.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">They were such willing, willing hands,</div> <div class="verse02">They stilled the mournful tear,</div> <div class="verse00">Unwound the pattern of God’s plans,</div> <div class="verse02">And made his problems clear.</div> <div class="verse00">They did not reach to high-grown bowers,</div> <div class="verse02">Where rarest blossoms bloom;</div> <div class="verse00">But culled the blessed, purer flowers,</div> <div class="verse02">And bore them to the tomb.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Poor hands—they are so still and white,</div> <div class="verse02">The rose that shared their rest</div> <div class="verse00">Is shrinking from the long, dark night,</div> <div class="verse02">And falling on her breast.</div> <div class="verse00">The wreath is wilted on the mound</div> <div class="verse02">Where long the sunshine stands,</div> <div class="verse00">But angels have the sleeper found,</div> <div class="verse02">And clasped those willing hands.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107">[Pg 107]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i108.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="62" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Look_Into_the_Past">Look Into the Past.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-l.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">L</span>OOK</strong> into the past—there are pictures</div> <div class="verse02">Detaining the sunshine of May,</div> <div class="verse00">All aquiver with light they turn to the sight,</div> <div class="verse02">Like a flower that faces the day.</div> <div class="verse00">How restful the hillsides and shady!</div> <div class="verse02">The brook like a song passeth by,</div> <div class="verse00">And the trespassing moon floats about through noon,</div> <div class="verse02">Like a bubble blown up in the sky.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Look into the past! It is happy;</div> <div class="verse02">Its voices are voices of youth;</div> <div class="verse00">There is no idle jest to disturb the heart’s rest,</div> <div class="verse02">And its banners wear mottoes of truth;</div> <div class="verse00">Look back at the glad, happy faces</div> <div class="verse02">That walk with our childhood abreast,</div> <div class="verse00">And show me to-day, though it be miles away,</div> <div class="verse02">A spot that can offer such rest.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Say not that the years long escaping,</div> <div class="verse02">Show graves of a cankering joy.</div> <div class="verse00">Because we have found that new pleasures abound,</div> <div class="verse02">Must we cast off our first childish toy?</div> <div class="verse00">Because some old love has disturbed us,</div> <div class="verse02">And filled a lost hour full of gloom,</div> <div class="verse00">Are we never to go, when the sun lieth low,</div> <div class="verse02">And stand by the neglected tomb?</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108">[Pg 108]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i109.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="98" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Little_Face">A Little Face. <small><br/> TO “C.”</small></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> little face to look at,</div> <div class="verse02">A little face to kiss;</div> <div class="verse00">Is there anything, I wonder,</div> <div class="verse02">That’s half so sweet as this?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A little cheek to dimple</div> <div class="verse02">When smiles begin to grow</div> <div class="verse00">A little mouth betraying</div> <div class="verse02">Which way the kisses go.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A slender little ringlet,</div> <div class="verse02">A rosy little ear;</div> <div class="verse00">A little chin to quiver</div> <div class="verse02">When falls the little tear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A little face to look at,</div> <div class="verse02">A little face to kiss;</div> <div class="verse00">Is there anything, I wonder,</div> <div class="verse02">That’s half so sweet as this?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">A little hand so fragile</div> <div class="verse02">All through the night to hold</div> <div class="verse00">Two little feet so tender</div> <div class="verse02">To tuck in from the cold.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Two eyes to watch the sunbeam</div> <div class="verse02">That with the shadow plays—</div> <div class="verse00">A darling little baby</div> <div class="verse02">To kiss and love always.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109">[Pg 109]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i110.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="68" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="The_Canary_and_Rose">The Canary and Rose.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> lovely tea rose, in a new autumn gown,</div> <div class="verse04">Looked in at the window one day,</div> <div class="verse08">And said with a scorn:</div> <div class="verse08">“’Tis a beautiful morn;</div> <div class="verse04">But ugly enough is your lay.</div> <div class="verse00">Do you never grow weary of singing your songs</div> <div class="verse04">Shut up in that prison of brass?</div> <div class="verse08"><i>I</i> do not admire</div> <div class="verse08">Your out of tune lyre,</div> <div class="verse04">And none seem to listen who pass.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“Last night as I beaded my bodice with dew,</div> <div class="verse04">And shook the perfume from the lace,</div> <div class="verse08">There came to the fence</div> <div class="verse08">Such a beautiful prince,</div> <div class="verse04">And said, looking into my face:</div> <div class="verse00">“Too lovely thou art to live here so obscure</div> <div class="verse04">To-morrow with me thou shalt roam.’</div> <div class="verse08">So he’s coming to-day,</div> <div class="verse08">And will bear me away</div> <div class="verse04">The queen of his heart and his home.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Now, the dear little songster was pruning her wing</div> <div class="verse04">That had borrowed the sun’s yellow ray,</div> <div class="verse08">And shaking a note</div> <div class="verse08">In her quivering throat,</div> <div class="verse04">Replied in an indifferent way:</div> <div class="verse00">“My songs will not trouble you long. I discern</div> <div class="verse04">This breeze is forerunning a storm,</div> <div class="verse08">And should he delay</div> <div class="verse08">(This prince) on the way,</div> <div class="verse04">You must seek other quarters more warm.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">“Do you think,” said the rose, with a tremulous tone,</div> <div class="verse04">“The rain would disfigure my face?”</div> <div class="verse08">But e’en as she spoke</div> <div class="verse08">In the sky there awoke</div> <div class="verse04">A wind that demolished the vase.</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110">[Pg 110]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">With features all pale and distorted she cried,</div> <div class="verse06">Still clinging up close to the glass.</div> <div class="verse04">“Cry for help.” Said the bird,</div> <div class="verse04">“They will hear not a word,</div> <div class="verse06">For none seem to listen who pass.”</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">There’s a moral concealed in the little bird’s throat</div> <div class="verse06">That never her song will disclose;</div> <div class="verse04">But oft when the cloud</div> <div class="verse04">For the sun makes a shroud</div> <div class="verse06">She thinks of the beautiful rose,</div> <div class="verse00">Who died with a coronet touching her brow,</div> <div class="verse06">Crushed from sight by the hurrying throng,</div> <div class="verse04">And she smiles at a prince,</div> <div class="verse04">Who yet leans on the fence</div> <div class="verse06">And hears nothing else but her song.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i111.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="55" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Sigh_or_a_Tear">A Sigh or a Tear.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear,</div> <div class="verse00">As you watch the sweet-faced summer go,</div> <div class="verse00">And the throng of memories that you know.</div> <div class="verse00">A sigh for the star that stood in the West,</div> <div class="verse00">Now sinking down with the sun to rest,</div> <div class="verse00">For the smiles that live in an absent face</div> <div class="verse00">Like the blossoms of love in the heart’s clear vase.</div> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear</div> <div class="verse00">When you sit in the dusk with a new cigar,</div> <div class="verse00">And touch some chord on the old guitar.</div> <div class="verse00">A tear for the girl that was good and true,</div> <div class="verse00">For the songs of love—the letters, too,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111">[Pg 111]</SPAN></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">And the ribbon around the roses tied</div> <div class="verse00">That long ago in the drawer died.</div> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear</div> <div class="verse00">When you raise the lid to the little chest</div> <div class="verse00">And find what a mother’s heart loves best,</div> <div class="verse00">A broken toy, a half-worn shoe,</div> <div class="verse00">Some little dresses of pink and blue,</div> <div class="verse00">The blocks that builded such marvelous towers,</div> <div class="verse00">A golden curl, and some withered flowers.</div> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear</div> <div class="verse00">When you gaze in the tomb of the dear dead past,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the shadows of sunshine yet are cast.</div> <div class="verse00">A sigh for the rose, though bleached and dried,</div> <div class="verse00">That close to the loved one lived and died,</div> <div class="verse00">For the voice that is still—once dear to thee—</div> <div class="verse00">For the face that is gone—ah me! ah me!</div> <div class="verse06">A sigh or a tear</div> <div class="verse06">Is all you may fear.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i112.jpg" width-obs="75" height-obs="75" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112">[Pg 112]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i113.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="52" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="Snow-Flakes">Snow-Flakes.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-s.jpg" width-obs="21" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">S</span>EE</strong> the early snow-flakes!</div> <div class="verse02">Softly they descend,</div> <div class="verse00">Like an orchard blossom</div> <div class="verse02">Scattered by the wind.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Here and there they’re flying</div> <div class="verse02">Over all the trees,</div> <div class="verse00">High above them swarming</div> <div class="verse02">Like white-winged bees.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Faster still they’re whirling,</div> <div class="verse02">Dancing into sight,</div> <div class="verse00">Like a troop of fairies</div> <div class="verse02">When the moon is light.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Tripping down the highway</div> <div class="verse02">In a reckless gait,</div> <div class="verse00">Falling like a feather</div> <div class="verse02">Without sound or weight.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">On the distant churchyard</div> <div class="verse02">Over graves unkept,</div> <div class="verse00">Where the leaves have drifted</div> <div class="verse02">And the clouds have wept.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Little band of angels</div> <div class="verse02">Doing only good,</div> <div class="verse00">Making white the meadow</div> <div class="verse02">And the lonely wood.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Greeting with light kisses</div> <div class="verse02">All they chance to meet,</div> <div class="verse00">Leaving shining footprints</div> <div class="verse02">All about the street.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Little winter children</div> <div class="verse02">Full of life and fun—</div> <div class="verse00">Oh! I love the snow-flakes,</div> <div class="verse02">Love them every one.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113">[Pg 113]</SPAN></span></p> <div class="figcenter chapter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i114a.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="119" alt="" /></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i114b.jpg" width-obs="250" height-obs="74" alt="" /></div> <h2 class="no-break" id="A_Footprint">A Footprint.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div> <ANTIMG class="first-letter" src="images/letter-a.jpg" width-obs="30" height-obs="35" alt="" /> <strong><span class="hide">A</span></strong> sweet song spoke to me one day,</div> <div class="verse02">Behind a prayer that passed my way,</div> <div class="verse00">Yet neither would for me delay</div> <div class="verse06">The upward flight.</div> <div class="verse00">I searched and found a footprint where</div> <div class="verse00">The song had tarried; but the prayer</div> <div class="verse00">Had left no trace on earth or air.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="verse00">Straight from the heart it went to God</div> <div class="verse00">The song remained to smooth the clod,</div> <div class="verse00">And lay a flower upon the sod.</div> <div class="verse06">O, envied right!</div> <div class="verse00">If but one song of mine could chase</div> <div class="verse00">Some sorrow from the heart and face</div> <div class="verse00">I know in Heaven ’twould find a place.</div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i114c.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="116" alt="" /></div> <SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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