]>\rmm Hi 'I- nm'M Class TS353 g Gopi6ht><". XJi'l COPYRIGHT DEK)Sm GLEANINGS FLORENCE CECILIA ROBERTS BOSTON THE GORHAM PRESS MCMXIX Copyright, 1918, by Florence Cecilia Roberts All Rights Reserved 9 V NOV 18 1918 Thb Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. © CI. A 5 (K{)fj 2 4 •^ Across the Spirit's ripened meadows wide With far-swung sickle and with giant stride The great, the towering poet reapers go. Behind, their humbler, gleaning brethren walkf Gathering the fallen grain and chance left stalk, For here, likewise, their Bread of Life doth groiu. CONTENTS Page Part 1. Poems of War Four Autumns 1 1 The Democratic State 15 De Profundis 16 In Excelsis 17 Part II. Poems Philosophical The Chalice 21 Lines 21 Nature 22 The Warrior 22 Reactions of a Mjstic 23 Crowds 24 A Father Muses 25 The Iconoclast 25 Martha 26 To Little Paul 26 Part III. Poems of Pity The Unfit 29 The Idiot 29 The Invalid 29 The Mekncholiac 30 6 Contents Part IV. Miscellaneous Page The Function of Poetry 33 Wordsworth 33 A March Night 34 Elms 34 Nocturne 35 The Ballad of Witch Hager's Death 35 The Sad Maid 37 A Young Wife to Her Husband 37 Love 37 Death 38 Old Age 38 Love and Death 38 Repression 39 To a Friend 39 Serena 39 To a Violet Plant Breaking Through the Sod 40 An Acknowledgment 40 PART ONE POEMS OF THE WAR Now dies our vaunted age, upgarnered in Thy abysmal past. And we the i/nme/norial lesson learn that Thou art vast And unescapahle and strong, and that, blind shut- tles, we Forever weave the endless web of Thy eternity. Gleanings 1 1 FOUR AUTUMNS {An Emotional Record) 1914 Amazed and mute, the zvatching generation stands and wonders To what eternal shores these volumed movements swell. What mighty mills are turned thereby, what awful Consciousness Doth know that all is well. A Prayer of the Peoples Give us, O God, a great man ! A man to stand above the passion shaken times Sceptered with Right! Above but not aloof: We want not desiccated learning now, Carping of causes and effects, And prating of a distant good. Our hour is on us and our need is sore. Our woes Thou knowest ; Unremittingly they rise and break Against Thy very throne. Our woes Thou knowest. O Thou, who gave to hold our sword of old A Cromwell, the Gracchi, yea, a Christ! O Thou, who once became a pillar and a cloud to guide, Who dropped the saving manna in the wilderness! Thou who hast ever succored, succor now! 12 Gleanirujs 1915 "Pj-aci-!" "Peace!" thy less wise younger children cry, "Peace at any price!" And Peace is sweet, But this high price which they would have thee pay Thou canst not give. This priceless thing for which the centuries Have paid their mortal toll and thy own heroes Purchased with their blood — this is not thine to give But thine to guard. Whenever, my Columbia, in thy high moments, Thou hast heard that awful Voice speaking Which assigns the fates of states, its words were these, "Guard thou the rights of man." This is thy destiny, thy radiant duty. To shirk which w^ere to waste the piled treasure Of the past and rob the coming ages Of their legacy. 1916 Choose Well! Choose well, O holder of the vote! Choose well! The ballot has become within thy hand A winged thing to carry good or ill To far off time and many a far off land. Choose well ! Choose well ! Glean'mgs 1 3 Toward the South turn thou thy ear and hear On plaintive winds that blow from Mexico, The voice of a mourning multitude which pleads, Oppressed with unalleviated woe, "Choose well! Choose well!" Or yonder turn where thunderous war clouds burst O'er massy forms in mortal struggle locked, And catch the warning clear, while crash on crash, The sky is shattered and the earth is rocked, "Choose well! Choose well!" Or, down the vista of our future dim, Behold the gathering strife 'gainst social w^rong, Where giant Discord strides with brandished torch And onward leads a riotous, trampling throng. Choose well! Choose well! Choose well ! Nor strike from off the vessel's helm Our master seaman's hand. The course ordained Is storm beset, but with his guidance we shall Reach the port unscathed and unshamed. Choose well! The Morning of November Eighth Dismayed, I watched our country's mighty face Lose calm ; saw hatred working there, And selfishness and greed and fear, until I turned away in sick despair — And lo! beheld tlie Spirit which I mourned As being dead or worse than dead. Stand calm as thy own mountain tops, O West, Where she for sanctuary fled. 14 Gleanings 1917 The Test If you, my land, should fail in this great test-} If you should fail and all the lustre fade From out your flag, so future races gaze Upon its starry folds, unstirred and curious, As those who look upon some graven emblem Of Imperial Rome, unmindful that Innumerable human hearts once clung With love about that sign ; if you should fail. And through the world the stricken whisper run ''America has been!" if you should fail, 'Twould be — how shall I say? — As though a mighty poet died, the last Among his peers, and his passing needs must be shorn Of seemly tribute, since he alone of men Had held the power to meetly sing such passing. Gleanings 1 5 THE DEMOCRATIC STATE Beneath my laws, upheld and strong, The myriad generations throng. Thy fathers were my care, ere thee, So may, God grant, thy children be. Throughout my spacious systems spread The greatest deeds of the greatest dead And the present deeds of the living great are mine. I am the earthly part of thee Approaching immortality. I am thy greater self: through me Thy works know not futility. Without my strong far-reaching levers Thy most powerful endeavors Were but writing on the rushing floods of Time. Mine is the ministering hand And mine the harshly stern command. Upon my mighty bulwarks rests The sacred ark of man's progress, Holding the sacred seed which grows Where e'er the blood of martyr flows. 'Tis thine to guard, my children! It is thine! 1 6 Gleanings DE PROFUNDIS It may be that my sumacs their accustomed splendor show J It may be that my barberries with gorgeous color glow ; I do not know. I only know That from a camp some miles away, Ten thousand soldiers march to-day. It may be in the hazy noon my half-stripped poplar sets The slender shadows dancing to its silver castenets ; I do not know\ I only know That o'er the haunted Death-dredged main A hundred laden transports strain. It mav be that the meadows and the hillsides, as of ' old, Spread out green mantles now to catch the maples' scattered gold ; I do not know. I only know In France men die — while I breathe this breath — An unimaginable death. It may be parting Summer flings her largesse lav- ishly, Up the ravines and o'er the hills, on shrub and vine and tree ; I do not know. I only know That in the heaven overhead A god — my God — is dead. Gleanings 1 7 IN EXCELSIS Oh, vSome may call these bitter 3^ears, Their thoughts being soured, perhaps, by tears, But I — I never hoped to know The world aglow and shining so. For from ten million blazing hearts The purging flame of sorrow darts And round the world a splendor sends, While every doorway lintel's cleansed With glorious sacrifice. Our feet, which wandered for a space With wayward dance and careless pace Down aimless paths, no longer stray, But walk the ancient holy way. O ye, who go with downcast eyes! Look up ! Behold the brilliant skies ! Behold the radiant road ye tread! Behold the shining goal ahead ! Rejoice that ye this way have found ! Be proud because ye touch this ground 1 For, turn ! The martyr beaten track — See ! It stretches shining back — Straight back to Calvary! PART TWO POEMS PHILOSOPHICAL Your flesh may not express the luonder that ye are; Your mind may not think it; the eternal fabric Of your soul will live beyond the youngest star. Ye have no ivords to indicate its goal. Gleanings 2 1 THE CHALICE Sternh', sternly, sternly hammer out your life; Grimly, grimly, grimly beat the rivets in; Shape the sides and shape the stem ; Round the base and round the rim ; Smooth it, trim it and emboss, Till it stand a finished cup. The Thing it is to hold, O man, is God! LINES (Upofi Reading a Novel Written i?i the Analytic Manner of the Day) O ye ! whose vision is so supernaturally clear, Who see through Love to Lust, who see through Law to Selfishness And everywhere perceive the marks of tiger fangs and claws ; How strange that I, who never had this gift of clair- voyance. Should yet possess the power to know one vision ye are blind to : Should see refulgent o'er this night of life the shin- ing goal Toward which man struggles ceaselessly. 22 Gleanings NATURE Vast, inscrutable, unescapable! Our terriblest cries sink hushed in your capacious being; Our little lives are wrenched and flung from their foundations the while You imperturbedly smile. THE WARRIOR A Chant for Dancing From beast unto mankind Invincible I climbed. From caveman unto now The ages stretch, an endless span. Littered with foes o'ercome. First the elements I defied, Then I beat the ravening brutes from my side. And' I conquered heat and cold, And I mastered gloom and night, And the soil and the seasons I enslaved to my might, And Space unto my chariot wheel I chained. Then a thousand lesser enemies I tamed, Till Disease, itself, did yield unto my sway, And, of all that barred my way When I long ago began, One foe — one onlv foe — remains: 'Tis myself! 'TisMan! Gleanings 23 REACTIONS OF A MYSTIC To positivism B) piling tome on tome, By prying flesh and bone, By these and these alone, We may not come to Thee. But following Thine own clear ways Which Thou like lightning scars hath blazed Across our souls, — thus we may come. To the Nietzschean Philosophy Is there, then, no Love in Heaven answering mine? Are Mercy, Pity, Justice, celestial qualities, We thought, and all divine, But isolated things, set solitary Midst a world of opposites? Man's soul, which seemed an image of its Maker, Reflexed, if seen at all, in Nature? Nature! Man's soul's her crown! her pride! Poor Fear, depart! Fair Faith abide! To pragmatism For him the insect buzzings of the world Drown out the music of the spheres, Like one who, listening to a fly upon the pane, Misses the sound of music in a distant street, And, because the one he hears so plainly, Inclines to think the other does not exist, — This, methinks, 's a pragmatist. 24 Gleaii'mgs In an hour of affliction Once, When my life seemed crushed as a crippled insect's Struggling in the grass, Or an anguished animal's, long trapped, Which lies at last quiescent, Having learned that movements lacerate, I seemed to sense an awful Presence near, To feel a gaze Beneficent and calm, And hear, — "I, too, have struggled, child, I know. From that — from that! — Am I God." CROWDS Ye Crowds! The wonder of you! The beauty of you ! The ugliness of you ! The joy of you ! The grief of you ! The humor of you ! The tragedy of you ! The nobleness of you ! The sordidness of you ! The hope of you ! The despair of you ! You men! You boys! You girls! You women! You babies and children ! And all your paraphernalia of dogs and horses And clothes and vehicles! Shuffling and tottering and lightly stepping And briskly stepping, — where? Gleanings 25 Ah! There you are illumined, And I am gripped and held with the wonder of the thought That in the midst of you, somehow, God is working his will. A FATHER MUSES Strange, how such tender things will toughen one ! More than once this little fellow here Has squared my jaw and set me pushing hard Against surfaces that hurt. Some men, I know, are braced by other things ; Mostly by pride, I think, one way or another. Of wealth, — earned, given them, or stolen, — Or family or attainments. And that's not strange. For pride's a weapon fashioned by the fight And craftily adapted to its rules of thrust and ward. But that one should come to lean Upon these helpless pulling hands, — That's strange ! And yet — I wonder — Perhaps that old Christ legend after all — . THE ICONOCLAST Not by your priest-tended altars, Not where your chants are heard, Not where ye crowd in worship, Not there may ye hear my word. I speak from the halls of Karnak; I speak from the Stonehenge rings; I speak from the columns of Paestum; I speak from the walls of Rheims. 26 Gl eanings Build ye your vaunting temples To house 5'our pitiful trust ; Pile to the sky your altars, — Lo ! passing, I hurl them to dust. I flee from your straining vision. From your creeds that are laid to ensnare, And ever your Holy of Holies Guards but the air. Know from your flaming temples, Know from your faiths which die, That ye are ye forever, And I, forever, I. MARTHA Gift-bearing Life! Reluctantly on some. On others bounteously bestowing, For others, then, those gifts for which they clamor; For me, my duty — flaming clear — And strength in measure. TO LITTLE PAUL (Studying chemistry) This chemistry Fd have you taught. Ere from Life's own grim lips it's heard : A word's more solid than a thought, An act's more solid than a word. PART THREE POEMS OF PITY O world, this is thy greatest shame ( Unless it be ye feel it not a shame, Which were a greater shame, indeed) , That poets still may sing and sing and sing, And yet not si?tg ye into tenderness. Gleanings 29 THE UNFIT "Too stiff and stubborn are these fiery souls; Break them, O Life, to my celestial ends." God speaks and casts them on the lap of Life. Life takes and breaks them on her wheel And gives them back to God. Then: *'Ye do your work too well, O Life. No brawn nor sinew left here. Cast them on the waste heap yonder." THE IDIOT Death, thou must be to me All Life refused to be: Lover and friend and babe, And every common thing Sweet Life to others gave Thou to me must bring. THE INVALID Again my soul, from its old prison, Hears footsteps, Lifts its head. And, palpitating, thinks: "This time the steps will stop; Chains clang down; bolts rasp back; Key grate ; door groan open ; And myself be bid forth, — free!" Again the footsteps pass. 30 Gleanings THE MELANCHOLIAC AVhen I shall have died Weep not ye for me, But think: "This was a soul, Oppressed with griefs not all its own, And sunk in unimaginable woe ; Which, more than miser longed for gold. Or lover for his maid, Longed to lift the latch of Life And slip quieth- into Death." PART FOUR MISCELLANEOUS Gleanings 33 THE FUNCTION OF POETRY Since thou companioned Milton's soaring mind Through Chaos and the dusky gates of Hell And past the unshaken mount of God, Not frequently hast thou maintained, nor well, Thy most exalted function, which is, I deem, To serve our thoughts as seemly garb For wear when handling mighty theme. So clad, they dare approach full many an awful Presence, Before whom cloddish Prose w^ould prostrate fall, And, wandering the sacred precincts o'er Of highest Consciousness, all fearlessly traversing Echoing court and corridor and vasty hall, And opening many an else forbidden door, May e'en surprise in her retreat The Soul of Music, Or catch the parting sound of Sorrow's feet. WORDSWORTH He sat his days mid mighty thoughts, The thundering of God's wonders Sounding in his soul. He sat his days enthroned above the clouds, Enshrined in light above the clouds, And yet did know the awful gloom Cast by those clouds below. 34 Gleanings A MARCH NIGHT It is a large Olympian night, — Of dazzling moonlight, wind, and great white clouds. Some god has made it for a festival And now walks hidden in the luminous sky. O Thou! whichever of the ancient gods Thou art. Who bade the moon to carve from this familiar scene A miracle of silver and of ebony ; Who caused the winds to trample through the trees, Driving the stately clouds across the sky ; Who flooded all the heavens with light, Cleansing them of darkness till they glow Almost a noon-day blue, Unst'arred of all except their clearest gems, Thou! whichever of the ancient gods Thou art, 1 hail Thee, Radiant One. and hail Thy works! ELMS {As seen from an automobile) There is a country road I know, All flickering shadows from a row Of elm trees planted where they grow At least a hundred j^ears or so, — Old padres with green gowns that blow And arms which reach above and pray. As speeding under them we go, "Benediciti!" they say, And, "Pax vobiscum!" Gleanings 35 NOCTURNE 'riu' niji'Iit is calm ; The shadows fall from leaves To moonlight blanched lawn Unwavering. The night is calm And only I am turbulent. Ah, night of peace, it cannot be That thou and I are part of one creation. Or, if it be, my soul would seem a fiery chip From some far sphere still nebulous, Dropped here by chance where vapory chaos ceased Long ages since. Sw^eet night! As if 'twere so, subdue me ! Subdue me with thy calm! Let thy smooth pulses yet more smoothly flow; Let thy pale gleams shine on, Untinctured by the lurid light I bring; Let thy soft voices murmur still around Until my tumult cease from very shame. THE BALLAD OF WITCH HAGER'S DEATH Oh, the rain it lashed and the wind it moaned Adown the black chimbley, But there's na friend in th' bleak, bleak wood To see Witch Hager dee. 36 Gleauijigs Oh. the rain it lashed and the wind it roared Adown the black chimbley, But there's na friend, save her cats ten, To see Witch Hager dee. And one's as slim as the witch's hand, And one's as black as her ee, And one's as scraggly as her hair, And one's more grey than she, And one has een like the witch's fire. And one like the witch's own, And one purrs loud with the wind outside. And one purrs in a moan, And one treads soft, and one treads hard, And one treads full ghostly, But there's na friend in the bleak wood To see Witch Hager dee. "Oh come to me. Grimalkin Grey, And I'll lift the ban from thee, Sae there'll be one in the bleak wood To see Witch Hager dee." And thrice she waved her skinny hand. And thrice she rowed her ee. And there stood up a bonny maid To see Witch Hager dee. And thrice she waved her skinny hand, Thrice her een rowed in her head, And there stood up ten bonny maids To see Witch Hager dead. Gleanings 37 THE SAD MAID "1 close my cen,"' the sad maid said, "I close my een and wiss I waur dead. I hear our trysty tre murmer and wave And I wiss it waur murmering over my grave. My herte's like the stane that wad he at my head ; My thoughts weigh me down like a casket of lead. 1 wiss 1 waur dead! 1 wiss I waur dead!'* A YOUNG WIFE TO HER HUSBAND I sometimes tremble, love, when I remember That this beauty which you see in me Will one day be gone, While that quality within thyself Which endeared my beauty to thee, \Vill still live on. LOVE Such various things as Love can be To varying souls ! To you 'tis Sensual draughts drunk deep From burning eyes and flaming flesh, And to this other it is pride Of mastery and possession, while to mr 'Twould be just a grateful space Where my soul might rest In its flight through Eternity. 38 Gleanings DEATH Sometimes, when 1 am gripped close by Life and its hot breath Oppresses me, I think upon the spaciousness of Death ; Its dark far-stretching vastnesses and endless echoing shores. Just at the thought, my dulled cramped soul expands its wings and soars. OLD AGE 'Tis not this body's growing old — It is not this I fear: The trembling step, the pulses cold, The vision grown less clear. It is the spirit's slow decay — From this I fearful shrink : To feel hope gone, mirth fled away, And haltingly to think. LOVE AND DEATH If I thought death to be the end, as some folks say, If I thought so, and you should die, then I would pray to live alway. For if it were the end, and you were dead, Beloved, and I dead too, r should have lost even the memory of you. Gleanings 39 REPRESSION A day and night my thoughts were filled with thee : The sense of thee clung perfume like through all my mind A day and night. And another day began Before I knew that thou could 'st never see The glimpse of golden Paradise which was revealed to me, And all my little joys died within my strangling hand. TO A FRIEND Weary with gazing on this life, — A dull colored fabric unrolling beneath my eyes, Ugly to look on, coarse to touch, — Suddenly I find thee, — a golden broidered pattern in the cloth ! Think not I stop at marvelling What accident of loom had placed thee there ; Nay, friend, I cut thee out and wear thee next my heart. SERENA By what untroubled waters grew your soul? Beneath what tranquil clime's control? What gentle spirits bred you in their ways Of calm content and unperturbed days? Although you do not know or dare not tell A secret so ineffable, Your crystal soul, unconscious, doth declare The angels have laid delicate fingers there. 40 Glea?iings TO A VIOLET PLANT BREAKLNG THROUGPI THE SOD Tin}, triumphant Proserpine! Exultant on the air you fling A silent epinicion ; And to my inward ear you tell How, for a time, you needs must dwell Beneath the sod with all the dead. And (joyously, joyously do you sing!) How you yourself fought death and won. Then from the dark and cold earth fled. Trembling, to re-greet the sun. Lo! little victor, I too sing The miraculous awakening. I hail with joy 3^our ended strife, And 5'ou I hail Indomitable Life! AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT "How wise you are!" said little Rose, Agape before the folios Spread out upon my desk's expanse. I proudly smiled, nor told her that The volumes she was gazing at Mere props were to my ignorance. .\ A tome from my omniscient friend Britannica (edition ten), A Neivcorner, a Wi'lte/s Guide, A Woolley's Handbook, by its side A corpulent lexography, — I name these, reader, as I should, — As any honest author would An aidful bibliography. i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 392 218 A riiiiiiiiimni f i llij.