5S\q )ZSiWA qis .HE _j, -iCA. 000014=15215 Class iPS^^Si^ Book_S)2^53tV^ COPXRIGKT DEPOSm -V THE HEART of a WOMAN AND OTHER POEMS THE HEART of a WOMAN AND OTHER POEMS BY GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON »> WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE BOSTON THE CORNHILL COMPANY 1918 Copyright, 1918 5v The Cornhill Company All rights rfservfd * OCT-959IR Qci.A50;r777 ,w TO INTRODUCTION The poems in this book are intensely femi- nine and for me this means more than any- thing else that they are deeply human. We are yet scarcely aware, in spite of our boasted twentieth-century progress, of what lies deeply hidden, of mystery and passion, of domestic love and joy and sorrow, of romantic visions and practical ambitions, in the heart of a woman. The emancipation of woman is yet to be wholly accomplished; though woman has stamped her image on every age of the world's history, and in the heart of almost every man since time began, it is only a little over half of a century since she has either spoke or acted with a sense of freedom. During this time she has made little more than a start to catch up with man in the wonderful things he has to his credit; and yet all that man has to his credit would scarcely have been achieved except for the devotion and love and inspiring comradeship of woman. Here, then, is lifted the veil, in these poignant songs and lyrics. To look upon what is revealed is to give one a sense of infinite sympathy; to make one kneel in [vii] spirit to the marvelous patience, the wonder- ful endurance, the persistent faith, which are hidden in this nature. The heart of a woman falls back with the night. And enters some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars. sings the poet. And The songs of the singer Are tones that repeat The cry of the heart Till it ceases to beat. This verse just quoted is from " The Dreams of the Dreamer," and with the previous quo- tation tells us that this woman's heart is keyed in the plaintive, knows the sorrowful agents of life and experience which knock and enter at the door of dreams. But women have made the saddest songs of the world, Sappho no less than Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ruth the Moabite poetess gleaning in the fields of Boaz no less than Amy Levy, the Jewess who broke her heart against the Lon- don pavements; and no less does sadness echo its tender and appealing sigh in these songs and lyrics of Georgia Douglas Johnson. VIH J But sadness is a kind of felicity with woman, paradoxical as it may seem; and it is so be- cause through this inexplicable felicity they touched, intuitionally caress, reality. So here engaging life at its most reserved sources, whether the form or substance through which it articulates be nature, or the seasons, touch of hands or lips, love, desire, or any of the emotional abstractions which sweep like fire or wind or cooling water through the blood, Mrs. Johnson creates just that reality of woman's heart and experience with astonishing raptures. It is a kind of privilege to know so much about the secrets of woman's nature, a privilege all the more to be cherished when given, as in these poems, with such exquisite utterance, with such a lyric sensibility. ' William Stanley Braithwaite. Cambridge^ Massachusetts. lix] CONTENTS PAGE The Heart of a Woman 1 The Dreams of the Dreamer 2 Gossamer 3 Sympathy 4 Contemplation 5 Dead Leaves 6 Dawn . 7 Elevation 8 Peace 9 Whither? 10 Quest 11 Mate 12 Emblems 13 Mirrored 14 Repulse 15 Query 16 Pent 17 Pages from Life 18 Recall 19 Gethsemane 20 Impelled 21 Eventide 22 Thrall 23 Youth 24 Joy 25 Posthumous 26 Omega 27 Tears and Kisses 28 Isolation 29 Where.? 30 [xi] PAGE Tired 31 Smothered Fires 32 The Measure 33 Inevitably 34 Modulations 35 Memory 36 Rhythm 37 Gilead 38 Foredoom 39 Whene'er I Lift My Eyes to Bliss 40 Despair 41 When I Am Dead 42 Supreme 43 In Quest 44 Recompense 45 Poetry 46 What Need Have I for Memory? 47 A Fantasy . 48 Souvenir 49 Illusions SO Transpositions 51 The Willow 52 Devastation S3 Springtime 54 Gloamtide 55 Pendulum 56 Deluge 57 Retrospect 58 Glamour .59 The Return 60 Love's Tendril 61 My Little Dreams 62 [xii] 1 THE HEART OF A WOMAN The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn, As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home. The heart of a woman falls back with the night, And enters some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars. [1] THE DREAMS OF THE DREAMER The dreams of the dreamer Are life-drops that pass The break in the heart To the souFs hour-glass. The songs of the singer Are tones that repeat The cry of the heart 'Till it ceases to beat. [21 GOSSAMER The peerless boon of innocence, The first in nature's Hst, Is fading, ere the rising sun The world awake has kist. The early dew upon the grass, The purity of morn, The glint that lies in virgin cheek. Frail cobwebs — of the dawn. [3] SYMPATHY My joy leaps with your ecstasy, In sympathy divine; The smiles that wreathe upon your lips. Find sentinels on mine: Your lightest sigh I'm echoing, I tremble with your pain, And all your tears are falling In my heart like bitter rain. [4] CONTEMPLATION We stand mute! No words can paint such fragile imagery, Those prismic gossamers that roll Beyond the sky-line of the soul; We stand mute! [5j DEAD LEAVES The breaking dead leaves 'neath my feet A plaintive melody repeat, Recalling shattered hopes that lie As relics of a bygone sky. Again I thread the mazy past, Back where the mounds are scattered fast - Oh! foolish tears, why do you start, To break of dead leaves in the heart? [6] DAWN Trailing night's sand-sifted stars, Rainbows sweep, as day unbars. Fragrant essences of morn, Bathe humanity — new-born I [7] ELEVATION There are highways in the soul, Heights like pyramids that rise Far beyond earth-veiled eyes, Sweeping through the barless skies O'er the line where daylight dies — There are highways in the soul! [8] PEACE I rest me deep within the wood, Drawn by its silent call, Far from the throbbing crowd of men On nature's breast I fall. My couch is sweet with blossoms fair, A bed of fragrant dreams, And soft upon my ear there falls The lullaby of streams. The tumult of my heart is stilled, Within this sheltered spot. Deep in the bosom of the wood. Forgetting, and — forgot 1 19] WHITHER? Minutes swiftly throb and pass, Shadows cross the dial-glass, Speeding ever to some call, Weary world and shadows, all. Down the closing aisles of day, Tramping footsteps die away, But no tidings thread the gloom, From the hushed and silent tomb. [10] QUEST The phantom happiness I sought O'er every crag and moor; • I paused at every postern gate, And knocked at every door; In vain I searched the land and sea, E'en to the inmost core, The curtains of eternal night Descend — my search is o'er. [11] MATE Our separate winding ways we trod, Along the highways, unto God, Unbonded by the clasp of hand, Without a vow — we understand. Estranged for aye, the fusing kiss. Omnipotent, we bide in this — They need no trammeling of bars Whose souls were welded with the stars. [12] EMBLEMS A wordless kiss, a stifled sigh, A trembling lip, a downcast eye, Alas," they say, A-day, a-day," The cruse has failed, the lamp must die! [13] MIRRORED When lone and solitaire within your chamber, With lamp unlit, as evening shades unroll. If you reveal the trail your thoughts are taking, I then may read the riddle of your soul. For it is then, the tired mind unveiling, Drifts stark into the holy after-glow. Within the hour of quiet meditation. The tidal thoughts, like limpid waters, flow. [14] '•/ REPULSE Nobody cares when I am glad, I beat upon their hearts in glee, " Drink, drink joy's brimming cup with me," All echoless, my ecstasy — Nobody cares when I am glad. Nobody cares when I am sad, * Whene'er I seek compassion's breast, I falter wounded from my quest Back! back into my heart, sore prest — Nobody cares when I am sad. [15] QUERY Is she the sage who will not sip The cup love presses to her lip ? Or she who drinks the mad cup dry, And turns with smiling face — to die? [16] PENT The rain is falling steadily Upon the thirsty earth, While dry-eyed, I remain, and calm Amid my own heart's dearth. Break! break! ! ye flood-gates of my tears All pent in agony, Rain, rain! upon my scorching soul And flood it as the sea! ! [17] PAGES FROM LIFE Not for your tender eyes that shine, Nor for your red lips pulsing wine, I love you, dear: your soul divine. In sweet captivity, holds mine! The tender eyes have lost their glow, The flagons of the lips run low. The autumn trembles in the air, — A woman passes solitaire! [18] RECALL Winter — aback sweeps the inward eye, Fleet o'er the trail to a rose-wreathed sky, Girt by a cordon of dreams I dwell Deep in the heart of the old-time spell. Almost, the tones of your whispered word, Almost! the thrill that your dear lips stirred, Almost! ! that wild pulsing throb again — Almost! ! ! — ('Tis winter, the falling rain). [19] GETHSEMANE Into the garden of sorrow, Some day we all must roam, If not to-day, then to-morrow, Bow 'neath its purple dome. Out from the musk-laden banqueting halls, Doffing our mirth-spangled vestments like thralls, Softly we wend to Gethsemane, In the hour that sorrow calls 1 [20] IMPELLED Athwart the sky the great sun sails, Through seons thus, the daylight trails, And man, living breath of the sod Beholding, in his heart knows God. Throughout the night's long brooding deep, Earth's trustful children die-to-sleep. But with the whisperings of morn Awake, unto the day, new-born. The mystery of earth untold, The great infinite, none behold, Forge ever new the spiral chain, Revolving man to God again. [21] EVENTIDE The silence of the brooding night, Enfolds me with its eerie light; I lie upon its shadowed breast A pilgrim, wearying for rest Nightfall! thy sable curtains steep My very soul in solace deep, God sends thee with thy soothing balms, That I may falter to thy arms. [22] THRALL Fragile, tiny, just a sprite, Holding me a thrall bedight, Stronger than a giant's wand Serves the word of your command. Out from rushing worlds, though low Should you whisper, I would know, And would answer, though the breath Be the gateway unto death. [23] YOUTH The dew is on the grasses, dear, The blush is on the rose. And swift across our dial-youth, A shifting shadow goes. The primrose moments, lush with bliss, Exhale and fade away, Life may renew the Autumn time, But nevermore the May! [24] JOY There's a soft rosy glow o*er the whole world to-day, There's a freshness and fragrance that trembles in May, There's a lilt in the music that vibrates and thrills From the uttermost glades to the tops of the hills. Oh! I am so happy, my heart is so light. The shades and the shadows have vanished from sight, This wild pulsing gladness throbs like a sweet pain — O soul of me, drink, ere night falleth again! [25] POSTHUMOUS Of what avail the tardy showers, To the famished summer flowers ? All in vain the rain-drops cry, Dead things never make reply. Life's belated cup of bliss, Woo the weary lips to kiss, When the singing is a sigh. Pulses quivering, to die. [261 OMEGA The fragile fabric of our dream Drifts as a feather down life's stream The long defile of empty days Grim silhouetted, mock my gaze. Though oft escapes the stifled sigh, A desert ever broods my eye — Since you have utterly forgot, God grant that I remember not! [27] TEARS AND KISSES There are tears sweet, refreshing like dewdrops that rise, There are tears far too deep for the lakes of the eyes. There are kisses like thistledown, fitfully sped, There are kisses that live in the hearts of the dead. [28] ISOLATION Alone! yes, evermore alone — isolate each his way, Though hand is echoing to hand vain sophistries of clay. Within that veiled, mystic place where bides the inmost soul, No twain shall pass while tides shall wax, nor changing seasons roll. Enisled, apart our pilgrimage, despite the arms that twine. Despite the fusing kiss that wields the magic charm of wine. Despite the interplay of sigh, the surge of sympathy. We tread in solitude remote, the trail of destiny! [29] WHERE ? I called you through the silent night Across the brooding deep, I sought you in the shadowland From out the world — asleep; No answer echoed to my call, And now my way I thread About the lowly mounds that rise Among the silent dead. Though voiceless, you will hear my call, Your soul will heed my cry. Will rise, and mock the prison where Your bones recumbent lie. [30] TIRED Fm tired, days and nights to me Drag on in slow monotony, With not a single star in sight To lend a gleam of cheering light. I'm tired, there are none to care That I am drifting to despair: O shadows! take me to your breast For I am tired — I would rest. [31] SMOTHERED FIRES A woman with a burning flame Deep covered through the years With ashes. Ah! she hid it deep, And smothered it with tears. Sometimes a baleful light would rise From out the dusky bed, And then the woman hushed it quick To slumber on, as dead. At last the weary war was done The tapers were alight, And with a sigh of victory She breathed a soft — good-night! [32] THE MEASURE Fierce is the conflict — the battle of eyes, Sure and unerring, the wordless replies, Challenges flash from their ambushing caves Men, by their glances, are masters or slaves. [33] > » INEVITABLY There's nothing in the world that clings As does a memory that stings; While happy hours fade and pass, Like shadows in a looking-glass. [34] MODULATIONS The petals of the faded rose Commingle silently, One with the atoms of the dust, / One with the chaliced sea. -' The essence of my fleeting youth Caught in the web of time, Exhales within the springing flowers Or breathes in love sublime. [35] MEMORY Love's roses I gathered, all dewy, in May, My heart holds the breath of their attar to-day; And now, while the blasts of the winter winds ring, I hear not the tempest, Tm dreaming of Spring. [36] RHYTHM Oh, my fancy teems with a world of dreams, — They revolve in a glittering fire, How they twirl and go with the tunes that flow On the breath of my soul-strung lyre. [37] GILEAD Walk within thy own heart's temple, child, and rest, What you seek abides forever in thy breast. Closer than thy folded arm Is the soul-renewing-balm, Walk within thy own heart's temple, child, and rest. [38] FOREDOOM Her life was dwarfed, and wed to blight, Her very days were shades of night, Her every dream was born entombed. Her soul, a bud, — that never bloomed. [39] WHENE'ER I LIFT MY EYES TO BLISS Whene'er I lift my eyes to bliss, I stagger blind with pain, Afar into the folding night The silence, and the rain. Whene'er I feel the urge of Spring, A throbbing, unknown woe Enfolds me; I am desolate When love is calling low. [40] DESPAIR The curtains of twilight are drawn in the west And vespers are sweet on the air, While I, through my leafless, ungarlanded way But pause at the gates of despair. Good-bye to the hopes that were never fulfilled, Good-bye to the fond dreams that failed. Good-bye to my dead that has never been born. Good-bye to love's ship that ne'er sailed. [41] WHEN I AM DEAD When I am dead, withhold, I pray, your bloom- ing legacy; Beneath the willows did I bide, and they should cover me; I longed for light and fragrance, and I sought them far and near, O, it would grieve me utterly, to find them on my bier! [42] SUPREME The fairest lips are those we kiss, With greatest ecstasy and bliss; The brightest eyes, are those that shine, Unchangingly through changing time; The greatest love is that we know. When life is just an afterglow. [43] IN QUEST With the first blush of morning, my soul is awing, Away o'er the phantom lands free, wandering, I seek thee in hamlet, in woodland, and hall. Till night-shades, enfolding my tired heart, fall. Yet ever and alway, like the thrush in a tree. My heart lifts its preluding love-song to thee; I call through the days, through the long weary years. And slumber at night-fall, refreshed by my tears. [44] RECOMPENSE Roses after rain, Pleasure after pain, Happiness will soothe the sigh, Smiles await the tear-dimmed eye Bloom will follow blight, Daylight trails the night, Life is sweeter Love is deeper In the heart's twilight! [45] POETRY Behold ! the living thrilling lines That course the blood like madd'ning wines, And leap with scintillating spray Across the guards of ecstasy. The flame that lights the lurid spell Springs from the soul's artesian well, Its fairy filament of art Entwines the fragments of a heart. [46] WHAT NEED HAVE I FOR MEMORY? What need have I for memory, When not a single flower Has bloomed within life's desert For me, one little hour. What need have I for memory Whose burning eyes have met The corse of unborn happiness Winding the trail regret? [47] A FANTASY I breathe the lyric of my love Across the twilit way, The gentle echoes bear it on Beyond the edge of day: All vibrant is the melody The silences repeat, My song is but my longing heart Pulsated with its beat. It winds amid the dusky ways Where far mysteries shine, To find amid God's trackless space, One answering song to mine. [48] SOUVENIR A little hour of sunshine, A little while of joy, We winnow in our harvesting From all the world's alloy. None, none, are so benighted, Who journey up life's hill. But have some treasured memory, Which lives all vibrant still. [49] ILLUSIONS Who hath not built his castles in the free and open air? Who hath not dreamed his rosy dreams, more fair than all the fair? Who hath not seen his castles fall, all scattered to the ground? Who bears his dream unshattered, from the dream-land where they're found? [50] TRANSPOSITIONS Smiles do not always echo cheer, Nor tear-drops measure grief, For sorrow seeks a gilded mask, And joy in tears, relief. [SI] THE WILLOW When life is young, without a care, Alone we walk, and free : The world, a splendid merry round Of rhythmic melody. Before the end, grim sorrow calls Into each mortal ear, When friendship fades to memories. And love lies in its bier. Then, then it is that sympathy Is holden close and dear; Ah, then life's consolation comes Commingled with a tear. [ 52 1 DEVASTATION O love, you have shorn me, and rifled my heart, You have torn down the shrine from the inner- most part. And through it now rushes a grief, sadly-wild, That breaks as the plaint of a sorrowing child. [S3] SPRINGTIDE All deep there stirs the throb of Spring, Its vital pulse rm answering, Swift to its dominant I merge, One with its undulating surge; My heart awakes to virile tone And breaks — unanswered, and alone. [54] GLOAMTIDE The shades of the gloaming around me are stealing, The lure of the dusk through the silences call, While blossoming incense comes mutely appeal- ing. And choiring wood-voices, vespering, fall. Immersed in the deep of my dim sylvan-bower. Upborne on the breast of its emerald tide, I drift with the gleam of the vanishing hour Afar — where my uttermost longings abide. [55] PENDULUM I have swung to the uttermost reaches of pain, 'Mid the echo of sighs, and a deluge of rain, But ah! I rebound to the limits of bliss. On the rapturous swing of an infinite kiss. [56] DELUGE A whisper at twilight, a sigh through the night, A strain of soft music, a perfume so light, Will sweep as a feather the bulwark of years, To surges of rapture, or rivers of tears. [57] RETROSPECT Love's kisses spurned so long ago, Dead as the years, that o'er them flow; And now, my gilded treasuries Would I might give — for memories. [58] GLAMOUR O come while youth's bright rosy veil Beguiles your eyes and mine, Let's tread the asphodel of bliss, And drink life's magic wine: Soon time will rend the gossamer, To wisdom's cruelty, While we are blind, my love, be kind, For soon, too soon, we see! [59] THE RETURN Again we meet — a flashing glance, And then, to scabbard, goes the lance, While thoughts troop on in cavalcade Adown the wide aisles time has made. Back in the glow of yesterday, With tender troth you rode away. The sheen of rainbows in our eyes, That swept the rim of other skies. And now a writhing worm am I, Beneath a doomed love's lensing eye, Let me but stagger, far from sight. To hide my anguish, in the night. 160] M.. LOVE'S TENDRIL Sweeter far than lyric rune Is my baby's cooing tune; Brighter than the butterflies Are the gleams within her eyes; Firmer than an iron band Serves the zephyr of her hand; Deeper than the ocean's roll Sounds her heart-beat in my soul. [61] MY LITTLE DREAMS I'm folding up my little dreams Within my heart tonight, And praying I may soon forget The torture of their sight. For time's deft fingers scroll my brow With fell relentless art — I'm folding up my little dreams Tonight, within my heart. [62] ^■*r ^