*,*'*'>> o O ^^**s^ PS .3.53Z... Author Title Imprint 16—47372-3 GPO DAY DREAM & EVEN SONG BY Frederic Fairchild Sherman NEW YORK JAMES POTT & COMPANY 1904 Copyright IQ04 by Frederic Fairchild Sherman All rights reserved • OCT 10 1904 •' X. ' ^.:i ' S^ ' [ Several of the poems included in this collection are reprinted by permission from the pages of Lippin- cott's Magazine, The Bookman, The Critic, The Youth's Companion, The Munsey Magazine, The Reader, The Sunday School Times, The Smart Set, The Independent and The Traveler's Record. FOR ELOISE CONTENTS SONNETS The Interpreter .... 9 A Love-Thought . . . 10 A Song-Dream .... 11 Love's Springtide .... 12 The Awakening .... 13 The Love Letter .... 14 Confession 15 The Dawn of Love ... 16 In City Pent 17 The Morning Walk ... 18 Sea and Land 19 Love 20 For a Copy of Keats' s Poems 21 The Dream 22 Memories 23 Dusk 24 Sleep 25 Remembrance 26 LYRICS Song of a Blind Pilgrim at the Gate of Heaven . . 29 The Temple in the Twilight . 30 A Pilgrim 31 A Saint 32 The Light of Dream ... 33 The Temple in the Trees . . 34 Fancy 35 The Things That Last . . 36 The Young Poet ... .37 Appreciation .... 38 The Storm 39 On a Picture 40 The Tide 41 Vespers 42 A Song in Season .... 43 Things Forgotten ... 44 Experience 45 QUATRAINS Sunset 49 Tears of Gladness . . 50 Love Letters . . . . 51 A Miniature 52 Reconciliation .... 53 The Vagrant 54 Silence 55 Hearing and Speech ... 56 The Seed 57 Storm in the Highlands . 58 On a Fly-leaf of Shelley's Poems 59 Sympathy 60 AN ODE The Moon 63 The One Lyric 67 SONNETS THE INTERPRETER If in my heart I heard as you can hear The happy birds and insects murmuring, In winter I should think that it were spring And so be glad as you are all the year ; Or if to you I could be always near And know the joy of every song you sing, Into my heart the music you might bring Of every sound of summer that is dear. I never knew such happiness as that Until, enraptured and alone, I sat And listened to the melody you made; And when I closed my eyes it was to dream Of some green margin of a meadow-stream That sang to me beside it in the shade. [ 9 ] A LOVE-THOUGHT The thought of you is like a breath of spring, Sweet with a promise even as the wind ; It warms my heart again and clears my mind, And sets the flowers of pleasure blossoming. Love, like a bird, returns with it to sing; Life leaves the shadows everywhere behind ; - It bubbles up and hastens forth to find The sunshine bright with buds and birds a-wing. And, like the fragrance of the woodland breeze, This precious thought is sweet with memories Of long ago when we as children met, — Of other days which you for me made bright With so much happiness and love and light That while I live I never shall forget. [ 10 ] A SONG -DREAM M. G. P. Remembering your music in the night, I woke from dreams, and listening I heard Ethereal voices where the zephyr stirred Amid the green leaves trembling with delight; From distant fields down airy paths moon-white, Floated from time to time a fairy word, Melodious, — the lyric of some bird That sang to cheer its solitary flight. Then Sleep's soft fingers brushed mine eyelids o'er, The zephyr hushed, the bird's voice fainter grew Until at last I slumbered as before. To dream again, and in this dream I knew A song familiar and love's voice once more, And love — which is another name for you. [ 11 ] LOVE'S SPRINGTIDE Henceforth my life shall ever know the Spring, And from my heart where love has made her nest There shall go forth upon the lyric quest Glad thoughts, from day to day new-born, to sing My joy through all the earth like birds a-wing: The voice of Love shall steal into my rest In dreams of song, and every dawn be blest With music sweet beyond imagining. So shall I share the rapture of the lark, The nightingale's enchantment in the dark. The ecstasy of every star above ; Song shall be mine until that day when Death Shall come to me and hush with frozen breath The hopes and joys that warm the nest of Love [ 12 ] THE AWAKENING Hearing her sing in some dim place remote I marvelled at the beauty of each word, As one who hears the lyric of a bird With April's gladness bubbling in its throat. And while I listened so, one ringing note Divinely sweet above the rest I heard, And in my heart its answering echo stirred Setting a thousand memories afloat. Then I whose lips the winter's cold had sealed Sought once again to fashion into rhyme The prisoned rapture of my silence long, And, one by one, I felt the fetters yield Until the world about me grew sublime Touched by the joy of love's immortal song. I 13 ] THE LOVE LETTER This fluttering sheet of paper, snowy white, A dove of Venus is whose glad behest It is to bear my message on its breast Unto my Sweet across the leagues of night. And when beneath the singing stars its flight Is done, then shall it find a downy nest Amid the laces of her gown and rest Upon her bosom, dreaming of delight. Up then, my bird, and spread your pinions wide, The quest is happy though the way be long: Joy your companion is, and Love your guide. And hope within your heart beats ever strong; Godspeed ! would I might journey at your side And hear with you her lips repeat my song. [ 14 ] CONFESSION When first I held you in my arms and pressed You to my heart, lo, like the lifting tide, I felt your love beat up against my side With murmurings of secrets half-confessed ! Like the refreshing waves your kisses blessed My lips, when laughingly and happy-eyed You on my shoulder dropped your head to hide Your joy and dreamed a moment on my breast. The wonder of the ever-changing skies, Of clouds and mists, and every glorious star Is in the beauty of your wondrous eyes ; The mystery of lisping gales afar Stirs in the softest whisper of your sighs, And Love makes me a poet where you are. [ 15 ] THE DAWN OF LOVE Sweeter than any earthly dawn is this, The morning of our love, when her fond eyes Open like little flowers of Paradise And fill the garden place of dreams with bliss. No glory of the daybreak do I miss — Blushes that rival daybreak's rosy skies, — Smiles that are sunshine laughing in disguise,— And all the sweets of summer in her kiss. Her hair is like a golden mist above The snowy bosom, that unfathomed sea, The undercurrent and the tide whereof Are but the yearning of her heart for me; And in the lyric whisper of her love There is a murmur of eternity. [ 16 ] IN CITY PENT Far from the mountains and the meadows I, Who love the quiet country, in this place Of strange unrest, turn thitherward my face, Tired of the noise and homesick for the sky. There sing the birds that in the days gone by Brought joy to me, and there the sweet flowers grace The path that led to Nature's kind embrace, And Echo lingers there with fond reply. O for a breath of fragrance and a sight Of blue hills swimming in the morning light, And purple valleys streaked with silvery streams ! O for the open country and the long Days made miraculous by sky and song. And leafy slumbers filled with pleasant dreams ! [ 17 ] THE MORNING WALK The birds are building in the budding trees And making music wonderfully sweet To me as I pass down the village street, Stirred by innumerable memories Of other days as beautiful as these. The pansies lift their lovely eyes to meet The glad smile of the summer sun, and greet Me with a fragrant whisper in the breeze. Into the garden of my heart I stray And there I find the flowers of yesterday, The sunlight of the summer and the past, — Remembered voices sing to me of love, As from the heaven glorious above, And I, enraptured, answer them at last. [ 18 ] SEA AND LAND Vexed with herself, the Sea returning sighs To think she scorned the ever steadfast Land, Who waits for her and reaches either hand Under the sombre shadow of the skies. That as a cloak across his shoulders lies. She answers not the jealous Wind's demand. But hurries on until upon the strand She turns unto her Lover with fond eyes. There as of old at dawn again they meet. And of the day the promises are sweet As those forgotten were. The sunlight beams Upon her face half-hidden in his breast, Where for a moment's space of peace and rest She gives herself to slumber and to dreams. £ 19 ] LOVE Scorned, spurned and scoffed, I am content to stand Within the shadow of your heart and wait, As though a beggar at its iron gate, To ask one word of you who have command : And it may be ere dusk the restless band That hunt you with the keen-edged swords of hate Will find your hidden refuge, but the fate That enters it must first with me try hand. The wanderer who hovers there to win A smile from you will let no Evil in. His only weapon is the steel of truth, A single sword to keep the world away, — But many are the foes have fallen prey Unto the courage of immortal youth 1 [ 20 1 FOR A COPY OF KEATS'S POEMS You taught my eager heart to understand The joyousness of love, and, opening this book, Bade me, as from a casement wide, to look Through it upon the beauty of the land That sun and bloom make bright; and with your hand In mine the friends of Sorrow I forsook To listen to the lyric of the brook Whose songs are writ in water and in sand. There with the lilies white we used to dream The starlit hours of summer evening through, With Keats clear singing and the dulcet stream Flooding our hearts with happiness anew, — A mingled music that must always seem All his, remembering this gift from you. [ 21 ] THE DREAM Serene she sits before the hearth's bright gold, Her withered cheeks transfigured with the glow, And, pondering the days of long ago. The scroll of memory her eyes behold. Unto her heart it seems, now she is old. That Youth is come again, as if the snow Of years had vanished leaving her to know The Spring, and see its loveliness unfold. The wreath of age rests lightly on the brow Where once the bridal roses breathed above Her girlish rapture in the fragrant air; She hears celestial voices singing now. And back from out the dark her absent Love Returning, smiles to make her dream more fair. [ 22 ] MEMORIES Above the busy world at dusk I know Each day an hour of happiness complete, For then I sit within the window-seat And dream of home, and Her, and long ago. The silence in the city far below. The sunset as it glorifies the street, Each to my homesick heart is ever sweet As the soft winds that wander to and fro. There oftentimes the blessed memory Of other days makes glad the dark for me; I hear the happy singing of the birds In bowers of bloom, I breathe the fragrance borne Across the world from out the Orient morn, And listening I hear again Her words. [ 23 3 DUSK The evening hour of love's brief happy day, And where is She now while the last sands run ? Her smile I welcomed with the rising sun, Nor dreamed the dusk would find her far away. I, on the threshold in the last warm ray, Remember how when morn had but begun We stood together here. The dream is done, And in the shadow all alone I stay. The world is quiet, and its quietness Is in my mind where all thoughts come and go Unnoticed as the birds that fail to bless This sad hour with a single song I know ; And hope within my heart grows less and less And dies out with the day's last golden glow. [ 24 ] SLEEP Lead me, kind Sleep, unto the land of Dreams ; There I with all fantastic Fancies gray Through moonlit groves of sombre yews will stray, Or with them wander by Life's silent streams Where fire-fly joys shed their inconstant gleams, And flowers that never know the light of day Breathe on the passing winds their souls away, — For this my stricken heart a pleasure deems. And if upon the journey I should die, Or, charmed by force of omnipresent power, Should leave you at the midnight's lonely hour, — Search not the glooms for me. Wherever I May chance, it cannot be, kind Sleep, more far Than this from where my dear dead comrades are. [ 25 ] rp:membrance Where memory broods, sphinx-like, with folded wings, Far in the miraged desert of man's mind. The caravans of thought through dim ways wind Unto the tombs amid the wreck of things. Fearless forever in their wanderings. And leaving all the wondrous world behind, They search the wilderness only to find The pyramids beside Sahara's springs. Close by the monuments that tower above The heart's first dead, a living stream of love Keeps green through all the years one garden spot ; And often, pilgrim-wise, our thoughts retrace The weary way unto that sacred place. Remembering whom the world remembers not. [ 26 ] LYRICS SONG OF A BLIND PILGRIM AT THE GATE OF HEAVEN Blind though I be I have not missed the road, Nor have I stumbled with misfortune's load ; While others following the sun by day, And stars by night, have somehow lost the way. And there are those, more strong than I to bear The weight of weariness, have fallen there. Lord I thank Thee, both for the inner light Which through the darkness guided me aright, And for the voice which, when my strength was gone, With words of loving-kindness urged me on. L 29 ] A SAINT She made a sacrifice of love To God above, And when He reads the open scroll Of her sweet soul He will find nothing written there But hymn and prayer. Her thoughts were like the lights divine Before a shrine; And she it was, a patient nun, Who kept each one About the altar always bright Both day and night. [32 ] THE LIGHT OF DREAM When evening comes upon the skies And sets one star agleam Sleep shuts the sunshine from my eyes And lights them with a dream. Then silence folds its wings above, But not the whispering wind, And though I sleep the voice of love Makes music in my mind. The dark a menace cannot be — The journey to the day, — Love ever to companion me, A dream to light the way ! [ 33 ] THE TEMPLE IN THE TREES Like priests the shadows to and fro In flowing raiment come and go ; The wild flowers bend in worship there, And close their lovely eyes in prayer. The silver mist like incense lifts, And through the silence slowly drifts; Then through the woods from feathered throats A hymn of praise to Heaven floats. There day by day, a happy throng, The birds and flowers with prayer and song Unite in worship, and above With song and sweetness lift their love. I 34 ] FANCY A form of mist by sunlight kissed Borne by the wind along ; Such is the dream which like a gleam Shines in the poet's song. What is the thought by fancy wrought In love's fantastic mood? Ever anon it comes — is gone Half glimpsed, half understood. [ 35 ] THE THINGS THAT LAST One pearl of thought the flood of rhyme May cast up from life's deep, Which left upon the sands of Time, The world will care to keep. Some little deed of kindness done For love's dear sake may be, Of all life's works, the only one To hold man's memory. Remember, nothing is so small But that, when life is past. It may not chance to be, of all, The one thing that will last. [ 36 ] THE YOUNG POET Life's new and pleasant paths he trod Among the sunlit hills of truth, And lifted up his heart to God, Who smiled upon the dream of youth. There listened he while nature taught ; IH There felt his timid heart grow strong; And there an inspiration caught From Heaven that filled his soul with song. L 37 ] APPRECIATION Across the world, on tireless wings Of love, his fancy flies — A happy bird which always sings Or bright or dark the skies. And if the song faint answer wakes From heart of one at rest — That single word it is that makes The poet's singing blest. I 38 3 THE STORM A sudden gleam of anger in her eyes — Mark how the lightning plays across the skies ! Deep-drawn her breathing, — lo, it is the breeze That drives the clouds above and twists the trees ! Soon, then, her tears fall swiftly like the rain ; She smiles, and all the world is bright again. [ 39 ] ON A PICTURE Among the faces of these girls — Which seem to break forth from their curls As flowers from buds — is one that glows All crimson like a blushing rose, And one that lifts itself on high — A lily looking to the sky, Another with a pansy's grace Half hides amid the leafy lace; And all are sweet, and all are fair Like beauty in a boutonniere — A dream of loveliness ! Give me This garden in epitome. L 40 ] THE TIDE High in the quiet heaven of my heart The thought of her shines like a moon above, And I can feel in every conscious part The joyous lifting of the tide of love. As when the waters of the summer sea H Run in untroubled by the restless wind, This flood comes home at even, silently, And breaks in whispered music on my mind. [ 41 ] VESPERS The stars at dusk, great candles, light The blue dome of the sky ; The wind, a prayer, from out the night Goes up to God on high. The choir of Heaven down the aisle Of Nature's temple goes. And through the twilight drifts awhile The incense of the rose. Silence, God's benediction, ends The vespers; and, it seems, Once more Peace like a dove descends Upon the world in dreams. [ 42 ] A SONG IN SEASON The madcap Spring came yesterday, And Winter died ; Happy at last, he passed away, She at his side. Now night and day the wayward child Is drowned in tears Till Summer, wakened by her wild Grief, reappears. [ 43 ] THINGS FORGOTTEN The beauty of the cloudless skies Reflected in her upturned eyes ; The gentle motion of her breast ; The pearls that like the foamy crest Of one white wave upon the sea There caught the light continually; The fragrance, and the touch of her Sweet breath to my flushed face; the stir Of summer wind ; and all that we At that time said, the melody Of mating birds — these I recall; But she it is remembers all. And so I love to sit apart With her, and, feeling how her heart Beats fondly 'gainst my own, to hear Of things forgotten far more dear. [ 44 ] EXPERIENCE One loved me once, I cannot tell you how Save that it was as no one loves me now. Playmates in childhood we, — the one sweet place Of refuge from the world was our embrace. Contented were we in our dream and free From ridicule that mocks the memory. So short the time, — it seems as but a day. Insidious Sin stole Innocence away ! [ 45 ] QUATRAINS SUNSET A siren in the sea unrolled The glory of her hair; And on the waves, a mass of gold, The sunlight rested there. t 49 ] TEARS OF GLADNESS These happy tears, like drops of dew Upon the flowers, suffuse her eyes Which like the blossoms, smiling too, Reflect the glory of the skies. [ 50 ] LOVE LETTERS Your letters come to me like birds, And always in the air The music of their happy words Is with me everywhere. [ 51 ] A MINIATURE Her hair is like a golden mist, Wind-blown, sun-kissed ; And like a little sunlit space Of heaven, her face. [ 52 ] RECONCILIATION Two children who had quarreled, and had walked Half home in silence, hearing how the birds Sang to each other everywhere, found words, And each forgave the other then, and talked. [ 53 ] THE VAGRANT Regardless of the Maker's perfect art, Sin like a vagrant is, who stands about The gateway of the city of a heart, And waits to enter in should Love pass out. E 54 ] SILENCE Her weary head poised on one upraised hand Sweet Silence whom we all love sits apart, And none of us who would can understand What thought is hidden in her aching heart. LofC. t 55 ] HEARING AND SPEECH If I were deaf, and yet the small voice heard — A whisper only, softer than the wind ; Though dumb, the prayer for which I had no word God in the silence would be sure to find. [ 56 ] THE SEED This bush of bloom that sweetens so the wind, Was once a seed the wind dropped carelessly; One thought forgotten, flowering in me, Has filled with wondrous happiness my mind. [ 57 ] STORM IN THE HIGHLANDS Half-hidden in the darkness of the night, Like sentinels the mountains stand before The camp; beyond them flash the swords of light And far away the guns of thunder roar. [ 58 ] ON A FLY-LEAF OF SHELLEY'S POEMS Herein all words are living things that die, — Whose spirits are the memories that throng The night, and haunt our dreaming, by and by, With half-remembered cadences of song. [ 59 ] SYMPATHY A flock of birds that far from woodland trees Have built and sing within the city mart, The tenderest of thoughts and sympathies Are sometimes found housed in a busy heart. [ 60 ] AN ODE *' Queen of the ivide air: thou most lo