Class ^EaJ?iL Id. 
 
 Book, .j LzxOk 
 Gopyiight N°_ J1A^_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
"■"-imiMT'" "I"*"- 
 

 
THE OLD HEMLOCK 
 
 AND OTHER SYMBOLS 
 
 A 
 
 liUj BY 
 
 BOOK it 
 
 jK^ WILLIAM 
 
 ^^ iJ 
 
 1^ NORMAN 
 
 VERSE ill 
 
 W^ GUTHRIE 
 
 '- ,"• 'J • 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY 
 
 J902 
 
■»■ n,»11 l I I I I iiM 
 
 ' -TO'-- ; !nwAr?Y -^f 
 
 CLjOi^S Ct XXa No. 
 
 GOV 
 
 i 
 
 m in I iiii> 
 
 Copyright, J90J 
 
 fay 
 
 "William Norman Guthrie 
 
 
 Press of 
 
 The Robert Clarke Company 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
Dedicatory Foreword 
 
 The rhythmist in verse has no system of noting patises that do not 
 chance to coincide with syntactical sentence-divisions; no legitimate method 
 of indicating peculiar stress, btit the capital letter. Therefore, in printing 
 this little book the old classic use is had recourse to; that is to say, the 
 capital is restricted to its prose function of working a fresh start in the flow 
 of words, a vocative noun or pronoun, a personification, a burst of feeling. 
 Again, the alineation in the first five pieces indicates always a slight pause, 
 not a drop of the voice. 
 
 This soKcitousness for a right reading is a verse-maker's plain duty. 
 The first five pieces are wrought out in rhythms apparently lawless, in 
 truth most subtly bound by a technique which needs no setting forth in a 
 foreword as the trained ear is the final judge, provided only the living voice, 
 not the superficial eye, be the interpretater for the ear. Only by reading 
 aloud will the characteristic theme adopted in each piece be identified, and 
 pleasure taken in the departures therefrom and unforseen returns thereto 
 thro* mazy variation* That these symbol-poems are specimens of a new 
 poetic genre is not true, Leopardi's noble ** Ginestra *' allowed the poet, 
 however, long digressions from the chosen subject (the broom-plant flourish- 
 ing on volcanic debris) for direct comment on man's destiny. In these 
 symbol-poems every descriptive touch doing more or less double duty, such 
 
Dedicatoiy Foreword 
 
 extensive digressions would amount to tautology. The genre was dis- 
 covered not by critical literary study, but by a series of experiments— 
 gropings after a form descriptive, dramatic and lyric at one and the same 
 time. Yet how much unconscious influence was exerted by Leopardi, 
 Heine and Goethe, I could not say. Let the reader take tiiis collection as 
 a test of imaginative life in the writer, and as a token of respect for him — 
 the fact, namely, that the writer has ventured to do his best even at the 
 mortal risk of so-called ** obscurity.'* 
 
 In conclusion, the reader's thanks for whatever in the book's appear- 
 ance may delight his eye is due the sympathetic quick pen and modest 
 taste of Mr, J. H. Gest, and the writer may claim his ancient, honorable 
 privilege of inscribing the name of some particular reader — that in this 
 case, of 
 
 MRS. MARY MUHLENBERG EMERY, 
 
 as an expression of esteem and regard, with very best holiday wishes, 
 
 W. N. GUTHRIE. 
 Fern Bank, O. 
 
Table of Contents 
 Symbolic Odes 
 
 The Old Hemlock 7 
 
 The Rime of the Tarn J3 
 
 The Defiled Mountain Torrent - - - - 26 
 
 TheMtde 39 
 
 Afterword -------42 
 
 Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 The Beeches of Fern Bank - - - ' - 43 
 
 Palmistry -------44 
 
 Dirge --------45 
 
 Ode in Sapphics ------ 46 
 
 To a Latterday Prophet - - - - - - 47 
 
 To Souls Among the Stars - - - - 48 
 
 After Tears - - - - - - -49 
 
 A Respite -------50 
 
 Sympathetic Mtjsic - - - - - - 50 
 
 A February Day in Tennessee - - - - 52 
 
 The Firefly 53 
 
 The Hawk 54 
 
 Dream and Waking - - - - - - 57 
 
 Nocturne - - - - -- -62 
 
 Autumn Sadness - - - - - - 63 
 
 Frost-Work 64 
 
 Impromptu - 65 
 
The Old Hemlock 
 
 TOUT-HEARTED, great Hemlock, wast Thotf 
 foolhardy to plant thee on crags thtis, 
 waterworn, naked — 
 
 tusks of some monstrous 
 
 jaw from the deep tarn jutting \ — 
 
 no soil save mould 
 
 of thine own shed spines, 
 
 amassed in the snaky 
 
 folds of thy huge 
 
 roots that, steadfast to clamp thee, 
 
 the splintering rock 
 
 enwrap* So soon as I saw, uncouth 
 
 black Giant, I loved thee ; and oft 
 
 couched me solitary 
 
 dream-whispers to overhear 
 
 of thy stalwart soul — ^but in vain* 
 
 Dragon-flies quick, emerald-glinting, 
 
 through swarms iridescent of dance-whirled gnats, 
 
 darted ; or, sparkles of turkis fire, 
 
 settled gauze-winged on the moist stone a moment 
 
 in a fleck of sunny 
 
 sheen. From the dense 
 
 7 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 laurcl-tfaicket the titmouse 
 
 furtively flitted, seeking the green 
 
 gloom of thy shade, perched him to pipe 
 
 twitter and trill tenderly soft 
 
 songs of thy praise, meant for no ear 
 
 but thine I Or, perchance, as I waited 
 
 unseen, the fox-squirrels 
 
 inquisitive, miscfuevous, sprightly, 
 
 peered from their holes, cheeped, chirrupped, 
 
 fretted, flurried, whisked-up their tails, 
 
 flirted from bough-end to bough-end, 
 
 scampering, scolding, scurrying, 
 
 in a dare-devil game of catch. But ever, 
 
 though affably tolerant, nay 
 
 gracious, Thou stoodest, thy spirit 
 
 methinks abode far 
 
 alone, aloof, aloft, 
 
 rapt in the beauty stern 
 
 inexorable, everlasting, true 
 
 of the positive world; thy bliss 
 
 too real, intense for frivolous 
 
 dance, frolic and song, or worship devout 
 
 in irreverent foolish words. 
 
 Stark gnarly branches 
 spotted with lichen hoar, and shag- 
 bearded, already thy spirelike 
 symmetry mar j but old age, 
 fondly of the past reminiscent, 
 dotingly garrulous, yet 
 for many a year 
 
 will not touch thy spirit ; then Oh, 
 of friendship wilt not Thou 
 
 8 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 tell one who loveth thee, 
 
 whether, when at first from a cleft 
 
 in thy rock (than the cool 
 
 mosses that slipper thy feet, scarce 
 
 bolder of growth) thou didst peep 
 
 curiously skyward ; and after, 
 
 when the froward chokeberry btjshes 
 
 that jostled and pressed thee 
 
 proudly thou couldst 
 
 overpeer at length and outreach ; 
 
 Whether, dear Tree, 
 
 in the drowsy noon-sun thou never, 
 
 didst day-dream, foolishly day-dream 
 
 of stretching, a benison mute, 
 
 thy hundred long-sleeved 
 
 arms patriarchal, solemn, 
 
 over the tarn as now — 
 
 warden august of its peace ? 
 
 For, irresistibly hither 
 
 happy day-dreamers are drawn 
 
 (lovers, and indolent youths robust,) 
 
 to sit them dow^n and muse, 
 
 in fancied fellowship close v/ith thee, 
 
 of possible things that w^ill not, 
 
 of things impossible 
 
 that must come surely to pass, 
 
 Howbeit, — taciturn Sage, 
 noble, austere, — 
 the subtle fragrance inspiring 
 of thy forest-breath sweet, 
 do not deep impulses stir in us 
 strangely, disrupting the arid 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 Cf ust of otjf wof k-a-day self ? f esoltttions 
 spontaneously well tip, abundant and pure, 
 to refresfi it and deck it with verdure 
 of hope? and trust (like thine own, 
 sublime) — in the universe, soar 
 overhead — a vast sky? our life-love, 
 ardent, out of darkness and cold 
 burst ablate — 
 sunlike its a^ure 
 
 ascending? and our baser desires shoot 
 upward till, scintillant points, 
 they dartle on our dark 
 hours of bewilderment 
 spiritual rays 
 
 heavenly impersonal, starry remote ? For lo I 
 a Symbol, a Glyph of a lore 
 Thou art, which our spirit 
 unwittingly spells : — how Might 
 Self-lordship, Soul-greatness, 
 are got of a w^ilful stand, 
 reckless, unshaken, 
 in hard barren places ; are got 
 of savage w^ar w^aged — 
 brute man with stubborn things 
 and forces undying and tireless — overcome 
 to renew, fierce, treacherous, 
 cruel, the strife ; are got 
 of uprearing sore-battered 
 a crest, defiant to blast 
 and bolt, — no fate dreaded 
 but shame of cowering, doubt 
 of the glory, and cavil 
 at the absolute right of the Order 
 
 JO 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 eternal j are got of otrtspreading 
 
 magnanimous arms abroad 
 
 to shelter^ benign^ 
 
 all that is guileless and true 
 
 lovely and glad ; are got, 
 
 O venerable Tree, 
 
 of fixedly viewing as thou, undaunted 
 
 though awed, yon infinite 
 
 expanse (terrific to puny 
 
 folk centered in self, and vain) 
 
 which floateth ever forever 
 
 unconscious, calm, beautiful, holy, 
 
 a myriad, myriad suns ! Which, beholding 
 
 long, thou hast meted 
 
 justly thy height — found it naught 
 
 yet much ; — and, foreknowing thy natural 
 
 doom, art complacent ; too honest to feign 
 
 craven and false comforts ; nor minded 
 
 having taken to withhold, out of pride 
 
 eager to give and forgive I 
 
 "Wherefore in vision prophetic 
 
 Thou viewest (storm-felled, 
 
 or thy grasp on the rock 
 
 age-loosened) fallen, — idly afloat — 
 
 root-moored or wind drifted — Thyself ; 
 
 fostering, feeding 
 
 with thy hardily-wrought fibre of life 
 
 mosses and ferns, orchids and grass, 
 
 parnassia with cups white and green 
 
 quaint-carven of five petals ; yea, chokeberry shrubs, 
 
 thy earliest foes ; honey-flowering 
 
 azaleas, glossy-leaved laurels, rhododendrons 
 
 n 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 tortuous-wooded, pompous-blooming ; 
 
 impartially kind to whatever 
 
 faith sowed or wind's whim 
 
 to sprout, shoot, bud and fruit, 
 
 on Thee, their rich Isle of the Blessed ; 
 
 with forbearance high-hearted, abiding 
 
 patient the day, when, 
 
 water-soaked w^holly 
 
 in the long years, slow 
 
 down thou wilt sink — 
 
 blissfully dow^n — 
 
 to delicious oblivion 
 
 at last ; 
 
 deep in the cool depths of the tarn, 
 
 which all thy life through 
 
 thou didst love, 
 
 heroic, godlike Tree I 
 
The Rime of the Tarn 
 
 a 
 
 ARLING little Tarn, with the dark woods girt, 
 
 high up the steep old mount, 
 
 solitary, kithless, yet winsome, waggish, pert— 
 for thy bonny tricksy air 
 whereas the moralist would dare 
 to account ? 
 
 Since thou never didst an act 
 that was truly altruistic, 
 and thy nature ne'er was racfct 
 with regrets, or passions mystic, 
 unworried by the woes 
 of the world, 
 lying cuddled-up and curled 
 
 13 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 bKthe jocose, 
 
 without faith or fealty, quite 
 
 unaware of wrong and right ; 
 
 Oh, so frivolous and gay 
 
 as to dance all day, 
 
 yea, 
 
 and the whole night thro* 
 
 too; 
 
 and whoso will may hark, 
 
 and envying hear thee mark 
 
 with lapping lightsome laughters 
 
 thy mad time, 
 
 ignorant of bygones, incurious of hereafters, 
 
 in thy wily happy innocence sublime I 
 
 Darling little Tarn in the forested wilds 
 
 assuredly thy heart is a child^s, a child^s — 
 
 irresponsible and vital, — 
 
 giving when it gives 
 
 without reck of requital j 
 
 taking while it lives 
 
 what it wants ; 
 
 free as the breeze's 
 
 its favors and its taunts : 
 
 it teases 
 
 whom it pleases, 
 
 whom it likes, heart-whole, 
 
 must caress and cajole ; 
 
 having never dreamed nor heard 
 
 of Conscience and of Soul, 
 
 deems cures for sin absurd; 
 
 by no fetters ever bound, 
 
 it refuses to be freed ; 
 
 J4 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 not lost at any time, prefers not being found ; 
 
 for when hath it behaved 
 
 in thought, in word, 
 
 in deed 
 
 (though all theofies^were waived 
 
 of morals bad and good) 
 
 otherwise — 
 
 than as a tarn under deep blue skies 
 
 midmost in a dense old wood 
 
 should ? 
 
 Is thy virtue unpretentious, 
 
 be thy principles less strict, 
 
 because thou never wast licentious 
 
 or by tempter*s logic trickt ? 
 
 And, therefore, thou seest no merit. Eh, 
 
 in reasonless austerity? 
 
 Yet if any have good right 
 
 to preach and proselyte, 
 
 if any might convert 
 
 bad sinners and worse saints 
 
 from wicked ways they*re us*d to, 
 
 it is thou, little Tarn, brisk, nimble, and alert, 
 
 who requiring no restraints, 
 
 might*st commend them sans suspicion, 
 
 shouldst thou choose to. 
 
 But thou dost not, wilt not heed, 
 
 thy * serious call ' and mission, 
 
 nor the world^s bewildering need 
 
 of some brand-new creed : 
 
 thou art, dear Tarn, thou art, 
 
 and lo, it sufficeth thee ; 
 
 let Such as have been moralise, 
 
 or Such as are yet to be I 
 
 J5 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 But oh, if mortals cottld but master 
 
 the mystery, little Tarn, of thy moods I 
 
 for the noblest, — in achievement 
 
 bereavement 
 
 disaster, 
 
 courageous — lose buoyance 
 
 of soul 
 
 self-control 
 
 at the daily-hatch*d brood 
 
 of annoyance j 
 
 the fret 
 
 vexation, 
 
 irritation, 
 
 petty trifles beget. 
 
 And methinks, — as I see thee lie 
 
 rippling, 
 
 contentedly tippling 
 
 (as though a flood 
 
 sunkisst 
 
 thy supply 
 
 to renew) 
 
 the dew 
 
 of the morning mist 
 
 on leaftip, spine, grass-spear, frond, berry and bud 
 
 condensM, — thy complacence 
 
 comes of doing none obeisance, 
 
 beholden 
 
 unto none, 
 
 not even the golden 
 
 Sun I 
 
 For Thou asketh no brook 
 
 to come yodling and hooping 
 
 and cheer thee, 
 
 $6 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 Of drooping 
 
 tjpr ear thee ; 
 
 no fillet in fef ny nook, 
 
 pfetty lispef , 
 
 to whispef 
 
 soft names that endeaf thee, 
 
 go tickling 
 
 the mosses, f tin trickling 
 
 to deaf thee ; 
 
 and when storm-facks fain-sagging 
 
 scowling, bullying, bragging 
 
 foar 
 
 o*ef 
 
 the lowlands that flatten 
 
 on the weather god^s favor to fatten, 
 
 thou flauntest thy blossomy rich array 
 
 near to the mountain's top 
 
 with a dainty insolent witchery 
 
 unwilling to beg thee a drop I 
 
 And why? in the deeps of thee well-up 
 
 bubbly springs of perennial springs jollity 
 
 whereat on the sly thou quaffest, 
 
 winkest 
 
 saucily, thinkest 
 
 some naughty thought, blinkest 
 
 and then — 
 
 laughest and drinkest 
 
 again I 
 
 Howbeit, when in winter the summit 
 
 savage cloud-hordes envelope — 
 
 dost thou sing it, or hum it 
 
 thy tune of delight 
 
 in defiance 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 of the Giants 
 
 and their ice-hearted might ? 
 
 Nay I No swaggerer, churlish brawler, 
 
 thou'rt no bittsterer, and bawler j 
 
 but seemlier far, 
 
 with the better part of valor — discretion — 
 
 meetest 
 
 and defeatest 
 
 oppression. 
 
 For so soon as ruffian winds come forth 
 
 of the north 
 
 wielding the sleet-Iash to scar, 
 
 driving flurries 
 
 before them of snows — 
 
 (worries 
 
 and w^oes 
 
 to provoke thee 
 
 willy-nilly 
 
 and choke thee) 
 
 little Tarn, still stilly 
 
 a smoothe shiny sheet 
 
 that dost over thee draw 
 
 from sweet head to sweet feet : 
 
 and whilst rifled 
 
 of its leaves, 
 
 stifled 
 
 in drifts, 
 
 the from forest aches 
 
 heaves 
 
 grieves and uplifts 
 
 its arms with cruel icicles weighted 
 
 to the hated 
 
 demons for ruth ; 
 
 18 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 How the robins and I do wish ws 
 
 with Thee in thine inviolate dream-Eden, 
 
 where the tree-of-life grows 
 
 for fancies do rest 
 
 and nest, 
 
 sing feed and breed in, 
 
 and the fount of yotrth 
 
 inexhaustible flows 
 
 in four rivers of crystalline cheer I 
 
 But lo I "When the spring-sun breaks 
 
 thro' the welkin, and warm wind thaw 
 
 about thee the missiles malicious 
 
 of the storm and the gale, 
 
 my wise Tarn 'wakes 
 
 in good sooth ; 
 
 and waters Thou hast to avail 
 
 for the year, 
 
 got without money or price 
 
 from thy jolly fooIVparadise. 
 
 Surely thy doctrine with tact is 
 
 taught by thy practice : 
 
 in days of dearth 
 
 self-supplied 
 
 Bride 
 
 of mirth — 
 
 in days of distress 
 
 hid away in the deep 
 
 blessed recesses of sleep I 
 
 No marvel the oaks, stout blast fighters, mail-clad 
 trunk limb bough in lichen ; the stark black birches 
 waving delicate fresh volumes of greenery ; 
 the chestnuts rough-barkt, bluff and burly 
 
 \9 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 up-thfusters 
 
 in yellow-gfeen clusters 
 
 of burs; the hemlocks, late and early 
 
 on guard o'er the gracious scenery, 
 
 grim, glum, sullen, surly,— 
 
 yet kind 
 
 to the wintering birds, who find, 
 
 in their spiny dark, safe homes; 
 
 the service-trees scrubby and gaunt 
 
 that dangle, 
 
 hzgmdgzdt their few pitiful pomes 
 
 under foliage bluish, wi^en and scant; 
 
 the rhododendrons whose firm gnarly wood. 
 
 aslant 
 
 in snaky tangle, 
 
 shows how arduous (tho* they rant 
 
 not, nor wrangle 
 
 as we) 
 
 even among tree-folk and shrub-folk the search is 
 for Light — 
 each with Iiis bad 
 and his good, 
 
 his record of wrong and of right- 
 come marshaird in deep ranks close-serried 
 to take solace in Thee, the Light-hearted 
 the Glad I 
 
 No marvel the jaunty-fronded rowan 
 bronze-berried 
 at first, then aflash 
 with sumptuous opulent carmine, 
 which, prodigal, he tosses 
 to the winds with a fling and a dash ; 
 the hobble-bush lusty, a-strain to display 
 
 20 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 his flame-coIor^d drupes 
 in rivalry futile ; the slender 
 merry 
 wild-cherry 
 
 his spring-radiance departed, 
 retaining yet a tender 
 subtle grace of his own ; 
 the marrish-maple, whose mere poise airy 
 unwary 
 
 there *s charm in» 
 and comeliness, dancing alway 
 impatient to don frory 
 glory; 
 
 the highland-hoIIy, that to waterward stoops 
 and a covert over-bow'rs 
 with lucent ruby fruit 
 bejewerd j the laurel, wayward, rash 
 that leaps from his root 
 whilst in lieu of his long-shed waxen flowers, 
 every leaf of him agloss is 
 with sallies of sunshine ; the modest azalea 
 unqueen*d for the season, to the sorrow of mid-June 
 having cast off too soon 
 
 her orange, white and rosy honeysuckle regalia ; 
 the green-brier belated, and inquisitive to boot, 
 that in prickly- 
 tickly 
 festoon 
 
 o'er his fellows goes trembling pell- 
 mell; 
 
 No marvel at all if they throng 
 at thy marges, 
 each pressing his suit 
 
 2J 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 for the boon : 
 
 a first and a last sight of Thee 
 
 who art free, 
 
 gay 
 
 as they ; 
 
 who grantest great largess, 
 
 yet makest no debtors 
 
 (since to all what is thine doth belong) 
 
 allowing no inferiors or betters, 
 
 preferring not these anto those 
 
 in thy childish millennial polity, 
 
 because ever a jest 
 
 sets the worst and the best 
 
 at one in the throes 
 
 of true jollity I 
 
 No marvel, dear Tarn, thou canst cause 
 the dead trees on thy surface afloat 
 to nourish 
 
 such wild-flowers as flourish 
 not elsewhere so fair or so dense :— 
 frolic mummers 
 in the summer's 
 
 lush pageant, to thy playful applause 
 enacted, — for note : 
 the neighborly masses 
 of bugle-weed shaking their knots 
 of silvery bloom-dots 
 on the least little breezy pretense ; 
 and the zephyrous tassled swamp-grasses 
 and fretted ferns in narrow room sheet 
 whom the rank rabbit-root, adept 
 in rudeness, with his new-got black berry astrut, 
 
 22 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 tries to jostle ? 
 
 that df oil tiny fellow 
 
 (dwarf St. John's wort yclept) 
 
 who, to honor fiis namesake apostle, 
 
 starrily decks 
 
 his crown with wee specks 
 
 goIden-yellow^ ; 
 
 the greenwood arcfiis with dare-devil air, 
 
 and the highborn parnassia of her style half -a ware j 
 
 Oh, how in thy waggish society 
 
 stern 
 
 Death, 
 
 dear Tarn, doth learn 
 
 to laugh at iimself under breath 
 
 in a cantless, new, beautiful piety, 
 
 even gruesome, cross, scare-crow old Death I 
 
 No wonder if the sun from his high 
 sky- 
 mansion sends rays of his fire 
 white-hot, to drench, 
 them and quench 
 their thirst, with thy stored 
 hoard 
 of purity, 
 cooll 
 
 No wonder the moon should draw 
 mistily nigh, 
 wistfully nigher, 
 when scarce-fledged lovers feel 
 at thought of their blissful futurity 
 (sweet fool with sweet fool) 
 on thy bosom together, strange awe 
 
 23 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 as Thott danccst thine elvish reel s 
 
 diamond sparkle, 
 
 quick glintt phosphorescent 
 
 quicker 
 
 flicker, 
 
 iridescent 
 
 opal shimmer, 
 
 quiescent 
 
 deliquescent 
 
 dim, dimmer 
 
 gleam and glimmer — 
 
 and darkle ! 
 
 No wonder the stars as they peep 
 
 through the cirrous dome 
 
 from the deep 
 
 of infinite space, 
 
 their home, 
 
 fondle thy fresh still face 
 
 ■without wrinkle, 
 
 and mirror in Thee their heavenly twinkle ; 
 
 No wonder the thunder-fiend perched on the peak 
 
 howling, 
 
 growling 
 
 to wreak 
 
 his pent might, 
 
 flings a steely white lightning to smite thee 
 
 and afright thee, 
 
 and roars out for boyish delight 
 
 at the blinding blaze 
 
 of thy swift indignant amaze, 
 
 his vicious ill-humor quite 
 
 gone. 
 
 24 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 No wonder the dawn 
 
 (ere the least 
 
 first streak 
 
 in the East, 
 
 that betokens earth^s yearning 
 
 broadens corrttscates and flares 
 
 the path of the Sun-Iord*s returning 
 
 to strew with auroral 
 
 floral 
 
 splendors,) unfailingly spares 
 
 her first faint most orient hues 
 
 to enkindle the haze 
 
 of thy grays, 
 
 or thy satiny blues 
 
 to suffuse, 
 
 little Tarn in the mountainous wild, 
 
 that dost make thee such godlike mirth 
 
 of men^s notions of fitness 
 
 and worth, 
 
 immortal sure Witness 
 
 to the truth 
 
 and the youth 
 
 of the Earth; 
 
 thy soul unafraid, 
 
 undefiled, — 
 
 forever a Maid 
 
 unfading, unplight — 
 
 forever and ay 
 
 at play, 
 
 an innocent Child, 
 
 and a Sprite I 
 
The Defiled Mountain Torrent 
 
 LOUDILY winged, forest-manM, side by side 
 o'er the green-and-yellow checker of tillage 
 alluvial, and the hummocky fallows copse-mottled, asprawl 
 
 in the stin and abask, — wnwieldily 
 
 approximating their contorted ridged bulk, — 
 
 in the shelter of their scarpt flanks 
 
 the Mountains 
 
 a seclusion inviolable create 
 
 for some blessed cool Glen to lurk in 
 
 from the rays of torrid noons fended 
 
 and the irruption of hurricanes 
 
 malign — some Rivulet, indubitably, in his infantile 
 
 innocence disporteth him, rollicking 
 
 from clear pool to clear pool ; and gleesomely 
 
 loitering in his eddies, 
 
 chuckles to himself at the play 
 
 of the silver-sheeny trout, rosy-speckled. And, Oh, 
 
 'twixt these imminent declivities 
 
 with underbrush bristling, by the rank 
 
 lush verdure.close-thatcht what abode 
 
 26 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 for the bob-white dainty-stepping, and the grotise 
 
 bronze-f tjfft, with fife and with drum, 
 
 to foregather and revel it in security 
 
 life-lusty ; and here, too, timorous fugitive, 
 
 can the cotton-tail claim sanctuary, 
 
 and the hazards forgetting of existence one instant 
 
 frisk wantonly, or nibble at ease. 
 
 For with what bountiful supply 
 
 doth not hospitably the Glen her visitors entertain ; 
 
 herbs aromatic, spicy-nutrient roots 
 
 and berries in succulent luscious plenty 
 
 divers-flavored, sweet and tart, to each taste ! 
 
 On, on will I hasten, yet discretely 
 sure-footed, and circumspect, that, by the timidest 
 denizen undetected, 
 I may penetrate into the privacies 
 sacred erstwhile 
 
 to the horned and hoof t goat-thighed God Pan ; 
 and, (tho* it was rumored 
 that from earth He be departed, 
 to reside in the Olympos snow-cappt 
 of Mythology, scared by the scowl of lean-featur*d 
 Science) devoutly, his blithe choristers, 
 of manifold wild minstrelsy, 
 will I hope have outstayed him : — 
 first and foremost the wee wood-sprite, shy and saucy — 
 thro* the bracken aflit, or dartling 
 some mossy-carpeted log along — 
 the winsome winter-wren, O might I but surprise him 
 at his hyper-riotous up-bubble of mirth I 
 Or if not him, then eavesdropping, 
 the dusky-green vireo overhear, 
 
 27 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 as solitary he setteth him to rebuke 
 with a vivacious virile vocalism the querulously- 
 iterant soft plaint of the peewee, 
 
 perverse shadow-haunter in woodland mazes sun-proof; 
 or, (Oh, supreme unanticipated delight I) 
 transfixt with a thrill of surprise — 
 stand and harken (as if pain, age and death 
 concerned us not ever) the hymn 
 of lovers true-mated hermit — th' tiny thrush : 
 a peace superlumary archangelical divine 
 into melody molten, cool, diaphanous, 
 soul-uplifting to a jubilant content, 
 
 pugnacious spiky locusts, cross brambles, 
 briers choleric and churlish, wicked virulent 
 nettles, coarse tight-tangling grasses, — 
 
 less obstreperously might ye I believe 
 
 withstand one that forward thro' your thickest 
 
 presseth with no malevolent intent ; 
 
 for soonest exultingly my heart beats 
 
 when nigh me some relative of mine — queer, canny 
 
 fifth cousin, say, or sixth — unconstrainM 
 
 in bush, brake, water, air, 
 
 1 may watch at his frolicsome gambols, 
 
 or the serious avocations of his life. Never fancied I 
 
 glory could be gotten in the slaughter 
 
 of a terrorizM brother, outwitted, 
 
 worsted in a conflict unscrupulously unequal. Come, come, 
 
 be ye civil to a friend who hath given you 
 
 the password, and we will let bygones be bygones, 
 
 my irascible stout fellows, as I slip me 
 
 quietly atiptoe thro* your belligerent 
 
 motley throng. For, I swear, 
 
 28 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 outposts ovef-^ealotts of the Glen, 
 ttahamiM, nay ttntlireaten^d, shall they be 
 all my kindred, feathery, furry, or finned — 
 the lords hereditary of your fortified 
 recesses. 
 
 What? Hist I On the wind- 
 is it a cry ? Nay, a brawl rather and a bellow, 
 a roar — a thunder-burst of waters I The Glen 
 
 1 foreknew (from excessive sun-ardors by hemlocks 
 umbrageous, and adventuresome birches 
 
 leafily screened) ; ay, the Glen meandering 
 
 scathless and free among huge 
 
 crags by some cataclysmical upheaval of the earth 
 
 asunder-cloven, wrencht, shattered, jammed 
 
 in ages prehuman ; — cliff -walls 
 
 whose least ledges cracks and crevices by rash ferns, 
 
 vertiginously aquiver, are tenanted, 
 
 or by shrubbery gorgeous-blooming, 
 
 and by intricate viney entanglements 
 
 precipitately down-tumbling, that athwart 
 
 the chasm green arms wavy and hands, 
 
 amicable, extended to one another in impetuous 
 
 felicitations, at the faintest whiff of air 
 
 almost touch ; — O the Glen 
 
 so bewilderingly beautiful, labyrinthine, sequestered, 
 
 (strange, strange I) is not the happy 
 
 channel, as I imaging it of a brooklet splash-plashing 
 
 bubble-babble, sing-song in excess — 
 
 aspatter, and aspirtle— of delighted limpidity ; but instead- 
 
 a rocky-barred keep, subterranean 
 
 kennel for some Leviathan terrific 
 
 dementedly pounding in self-annihUatory desperation, 
 
 29 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 up-panting a convtjkive dank blast 
 demoniacal, to set the vasty scar-fastnesses 
 ashttdder from the bottom to the top I 
 
 Best-Lov'd, first-Begotten of the sky, 
 
 foster-Child of the mountains, 
 
 "What is it with impunity doth afflict thee? 
 
 Thee, -who the very hemlocks wouldst — enormous, 
 
 majestical, — deracinate in a trice 
 
 and voluminously overwhelm them, 
 
 resisted they thy thoroughf aring ; O Thou 
 
 who the rugged adamantine granite grindest 
 
 with the pulses of thine onslaught spasmatic 
 
 and the unintermittent wash swift 
 
 of multitudinous swirling waters ; O Thou, 
 
 tho* utterly thou scorncst to be commiserated — 
 
 speak, speak I For, notwithstanding 
 
 thou tossest yonder downfallen giant bole 
 
 sore-batter*d of a sycamore, 
 
 frivolously as a mere flocculent 
 
 scum-raglet, and at his antics uncouth 
 
 (when frantical, for some stay, clutching, he writhes, 
 
 lurches and lumbers down thy rapids) inebriate 
 
 with wrath, dost into laughter vindictive 
 
 break hideously ; — Nevertheless yet 
 
 there abideth in the occult deeps of man 
 
 a spirit that insurgent, mightily to thee-ward 
 
 yearneth. Then, Oh, utter 
 
 I supplicate, nay adjure thee, thine innermost 
 
 rancor incommunicable I For wronged, wronged, 
 
 yea, wronged art Thou if aright 
 
 the tremulous overtone I interpret, and the mutterings — 
 
 unpremeditated, inadvertent, mysterious, 
 
 30 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 abysmical — that perturb 
 
 with a panic the hearer ; those wails, sobs, 
 
 pitifully human, half-suppresst, yet thro* the din 
 
 audible in a ghostly suspiration, as thou rumblest 
 
 and from rocklevel to rocklevel 
 
 down precipice after precipice 
 
 crashest in cataracts horrisonous, suicidal, 
 
 lacerating thee to grisly froth-shreds, 
 
 and soul-seething. Thou hissest and up-spewest 
 
 haggard, awful, 
 
 an insensate contempt of Thyself. 
 
 Behold, for a space farther forth 
 
 the ravine wide-yawns and admitteth 
 
 the sun to irradiate thee with diamantine 
 
 splashes of living splendor. Quick thither 
 
 am I wending through close-twisting masses 
 
 of blossomy laurel, over root-claspt rocks, 
 
 moist and slippery, about trunks of superb 
 
 hemlocks collossal, and there, 
 
 quieted for an instant, may thine ire 
 
 get articulate expression. What meaneth it? 
 
 Speak I Assuredly, — an ocular illusion ? in the shine 
 
 thy swollen floods effervescent whirl 
 
 golden, and regurgitate bron^e-umbery, 
 
 russet-shimmering in the distance? Too well 
 
 have I understood thee now. Thee 
 
 and thy dire speech— O Thou, 
 
 who hadst dedicated thy Self — 
 
 to maintain thee unpolluted the purity of thy origin, 
 
 and the rivers, whereunto thou shalt be tributary, 
 
 so much as in thee lieth with thy crystalline 
 
 onrush to clarify, and the ocean^s 
 
 3J 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 tf ackish wallow and welter, if it were possible, 
 to sweeten v/ith thy savor 
 of sky — O Thou, Thou 
 evenj> Tho« also hast altogether forfeited 
 thy hyaline pellttcidity, befouled — 
 tttrbid, yea, maculate I maculate I 
 And, as a nightmare again 
 horrifies, remembered, Lo I the Mill — 
 that bestrode thee intercurrent between 
 slopes once thick-w^ooded — w^here it squats 
 before me, as when I quicken'd my pace 
 endeavoring not to see or hear aught i — 
 the loathsome canker-Monster omnivorously 
 ravening into the sacred dense evergreen gloom. 
 And mine ears, in despite of me, the shrill 
 shrieks of the steam- whistle affray ; and the screech 
 and the howl of the rotatory saws terminating 
 in a raucous death-rattle and fierce 
 rasp ; and the wheezy respiration of the engines 
 rust-pockt ; and the clatter interminable 
 of shingles and plank. What scraggM piles 
 of strippt tanbark beatle and totter akimbo I "What mounds 
 funereal of sallow saw-dust, wind-fretted, thy gorge 
 choke-up, and throttle thee to strangulation ! 
 Obsessed am I by the groans of timber-loaded 
 wanes, lashes of the whip-thongs, and the strain 
 intolerable of starved mutilated 
 brute flesh — blood, sweat, obscene jest 
 and profanity ! O Brother 
 spare me thy reproach, for too keen 
 
 mine abhorrence of the desecration that hath been committed 
 by greed-craz'd human kinsfolk I disown — 
 no fellows they of mine — yea, yea I saw them — 
 
 32 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 and still sec them in memory, — those archways 
 
 gothic-pointed of laurel, demolisht by fiend-fires : 
 
 black skeletons that convulsive coil and crook them 
 
 in a drunken death-dance ; and the soil, where 
 
 charred, lye-bitten to an aching waste, 
 
 ghastily it gapes sunward. And within me 
 
 my spirit groaneth, outraged 
 
 at the fatuous devastation of the Earth — 
 
 our long-suffering Mother — 
 
 humiliated, sacrilegiously defied 
 
 by the very children of her heavcn-hallowed womb 1 
 
 Woe, woe is me — not unseldom, 
 
 O Torrent of savage sorrow unassuagable, 
 
 was I maddened with thy phrenzy ere this — 
 
 fanatical, at thought of the despoilers, the deflowerers, 
 
 the devastators I Nor thou only 
 
 hadst to suffer contamination, and of miscreants 
 
 the cynical unconcern. If it listeth thee, — inveigh, 
 
 and the turbulence of thy distress ease, 
 
 by imprecatory bursts of vehemence — 
 
 ineffectual, alas I Ejaculate, O ejaculate 
 
 in the paroxysms of delirium, thine anathemas ; 
 
 and I will abase me, shamefast 
 
 in thy presence, to hearken : 
 
 "Man, Man*' 
 thou criest-out with a voice of great grief 
 unsubduable yet chastened, transmuted 
 to rage prophetic : ** Man, Man 
 whom for aeons on aeons 
 We of the ancienter order elemental, 
 rapturously expectant, did adore ; 
 
 33 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 instantaneous his insight and unerring, 
 
 omnipotent the pressure, 
 
 unimaginable the dexterity of his miracle-working hands ; 
 
 Man, Man, magnanimous (woe, woe'I) 
 
 we had imagined him, lofty-tempered j 
 
 Mind, discerning of the Process creative 
 
 the implicate ends ; supreme 
 
 Will, by glad godly indefatigable labors 
 
 fashioning, into a reality of unillusionary 
 
 loveliness, our vision long-worshippt 
 
 of the world ? Man, Man • ♦ . 
 
 and Oh, lo I — he hath appear^ — 
 
 and we have beholden him : no divinity 
 
 but a Demon — tempter, torturer, corrupter — 
 
 no law venerated that prohibiteth 
 
 a gratification instantaneous of his glutton wants, 
 
 cra^'d desires ;— Man, Man — 
 
 oppressor without scruple of the weaponless 
 
 and confiding ; extirpator of the formidable 
 
 frank-hearted, noble-spirited, that stoop them not 
 
 to be yokt and made vile ; sparing only 
 
 that thenceforward thy soul 
 
 may in orgic massacres delight itself ; vandal-violator 
 
 of beauty, wrought solemnly thro* the centuries 
 
 and slow, for Thee, ingrate, to marvel at 
 
 and rejoice-in j O Man I — 
 
 forever must thy tyranny 
 
 be irresponsible to reason, right, ultimate 
 
 self-interest ? Wilt thou persist, 
 
 in the ruin, maniacal ravager, of thy heritage — 
 
 the one star of thy birthright ? Dost thou dread not 
 
 the degeneracy of thine imperial 
 
 breed, and at naught settest thou thy destiny 
 
 34 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 of Godhood ? No premonitory misgivings, 
 
 ere yet it be too late, wilt thou give ear to? 
 
 And wilt then dare in after ages, 
 
 (Fooll Fool I) 
 
 when self-doom'd thou art perishing, 
 
 at the mirth-twinkling heavens to vent thee 
 
 in maledictions preposterous, because 
 
 the old bosom forsooth, scarred, bruisM, 
 
 gore-bedabbled, of thy Mother 
 
 will not foster more, and rear as of old, 
 
 thy pullulent generations— the Mother 
 
 (loving, responsive to her offspring 
 
 until cold at the last, stark, dead), 
 
 of Thee, slain — blind, ruthless, false Son I *' 
 
 Sad misanthropist sublime, 
 
 comfort thee, comfort thee — for high 
 
 above thy final leap and lunge, 
 
 horrific, into the chasm, 
 
 forever vortically to engulf thee from sight 
 
 of thyself and the dizzy-swaying sun, — 
 
 Canst thou see not how a bare bough 
 
 intrepidly thy spray-cloud 
 
 overreaches and the arching prism-splendors 
 
 that environ and enaureole thy hoar stormy-Iockt 
 
 head calamitous? — Behold (if but a moment 
 
 thou wilt allow thee to be distracted 
 
 from tfiine anguish) how a Bird 
 
 percheth him on the lichen-hair'd 
 
 tip-most twig — (what, dost thou recognize not 
 
 thy well-wisher?) brown-speckled, buff -breasted, 
 
 rufous-green — wing and tail I 'T is, O joy I 
 
 the swamp-angel, the diminutive Throstle 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 of the solitude — andto capture thy notice, 
 
 thf o* the vibrating a^wre, 
 
 in quick loops aerial, he wingeth him, 
 
 and returneth undaunted again 
 
 his word of consolation to deliver — for see, see I — 
 
 he w^arbleth now some dythiramb unimpassionately 
 
 voluble — a paean of victory *i is, spiritual, 
 
 for thy hearing ; and the strains, 
 
 in the boom of thine uproar inaudible, 
 
 my heart echoeth : — 
 
 ** Hark, Hark, 
 wert Thou still uncontaminate as erst 
 (O mountain Torrent, — harken, harken, 
 and take comfort I) — not so dazzling were 
 the whiteness of thy bubbly foam ; Nor thy spray-mists, 
 wind-agitated, were fret elusively 
 with such palpitant sun-glories ; 
 Nor overspun with vivid frostwork 
 so lacily were thy cataracts, evermore 
 spirting sparkles, and outfraying into traceries 
 iridescent of spume ; Nor so ferocious — 
 verily, verily — were 
 
 thy denunciations hurPd at Evil, earthshaking, 
 hoarse-reverberant under hollowed-out 
 silvery-oozing and dribbling mosst scars ; 
 Nor would gusts so irresistible set adancc 
 the leafage on the tree-tops, in jubilation 
 that they hang beyond reach 
 
 utterly of all soilure ; Nor were the flaming sun-flower, 
 and, fragrant, the raspberries with their wild-rose bloom, 
 purple, and the constellated aster 
 yellow-cor'd, lavender or milky-petall^d, 
 
 36 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 thus regally invested, transfigured 
 
 with such crystalline, rainbow-radiant array ; 
 
 Nor below, where forespent 
 
 thou tarriest a while gasping 
 
 for wrath-respite — and thy anarchical 
 
 yeasty turmoil out-smoothens 
 
 to an ominous glassy glare, — wouldst Thou spread 
 
 so burnished a mirror as now 
 
 (of thy very swarthiness clearer) 
 
 for sun, stars, luminous clouds and the ardent 
 
 f irmamental still Blue I ** 
 
 Comfort thee, comfort thee 
 
 implacable defiled Torrent, 
 
 for thy Consoler 
 
 carolleth, still carolleth, 
 
 the transparency thou shall yet achieve thee 
 
 of thy purificatory fury 
 
 at pollution. Thine, thine 
 
 (so he singeth faith-exhuberant) 
 
 shall a virgin Immaculacy 
 
 more miraculous than erst be ; 
 
 and brave-souPd shalt thou bear it to the ocean 
 
 the vast, bitter and foul ocean that at least 
 
 by so little it may the sweeter, 
 
 the clearer be. Nor for naught 
 
 shall thine agonized mad curses 
 
 to the welkin have forth-thunder'd. 
 
 For there cometh, Oh there cometh 
 
 (hear, hear him at his ultimate 
 
 fugue ecstatic I) 
 
 the Man of thy holy hope — He 
 
 the expected, the worshippt, the ftilfiller — 
 
 37 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 of his advent divine the foreordained 
 
 times shortened 
 
 with the cry 
 
 tininterrupted, savage, fearful, of thy desire,- 
 
 O defird mountain Torrent, inspired 
 
 Prophet of evil, — 
 
 by Thee I 
 
The Mule : a Swnr ise whimsy 
 
 HERE spanned the road lies 
 
 by the massy iron bridge 
 
 above the power-house with its perpetual 
 wind-flutter'd steam banner, 
 I was sauntering ere fully yet day dawned, 
 listless, of protracted toil weary, 
 and despairing of sleep. The wicked steely 
 glints of the oil'd machinery 
 ponderous, at work under persistent 
 scrutiny of electric eyes, 
 spider-like depending from roof-rafters 
 uncannily, my mind haunted % till homeward 
 I turn'd, and yonder on the far side 
 of the lower road-cut, the quarried hill, gray, 
 perpendicular, stubborn, confronted me, crested 
 with a dusky hunch, gruesome, that at times 
 seem'd to waver as to outline, and stir 
 in lurches erratic on the uttermost sheer z6^%z* 
 Still-standing, long fascinated, 
 I ga^M, and at length 
 the dawn-gleams, uncertain, revealed 
 irreverently the patient hill^s scalp 
 of rank weeds wiry tugging : — 
 a Mule 1 And I mused 
 
 39 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 straightway of the People wncifcumspect 
 
 ever feeding on the verge of a civic 
 
 abyss without light, 
 
 nor feeling of any — great lack, 
 
 for the togging and the munching of the weeds I 
 
 Suddenly, as intent at the creature 
 I lookt, — that had ceas'd 
 in his dignity symbolic to suggest 
 aught vulgar, flippant, whimsical, — a burst 
 of bloody light volcanic 
 from some crater, so it seemed, 
 close behind him deep-yawning, etch*d-out 
 lean legs, downcast head, ears protuberant, 
 ignominous tassePd tail 
 the flushed sky against, that enhaloed him ; 
 wholly, however, 
 
 at the grotesque weird silhouetting of his form 
 the Mule was undismayed, and gra^'d on — 
 for nowise the illumination, you conceive, 
 marr*d the pungeancy acrid 
 of the weeds I And a laugh, bitter, unawares 
 startled me (tho* my own) recalling 
 how we prate — eloquently — about reform, 
 progress, enlightenment (foolish 
 self -deceivers I) and the sure 
 holy common sense of arous'd 
 public Opinion I But lo, 
 from the body of the Mule, as I ponder'd 
 dejectedly man's future political and social- 
 swift rays to the zenith up-flew, 
 fanlike outspread ; and at once 
 the steam-banner, on the power-house flaunted, 
 
 40 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 caught fife ; and scuff ying f Itiff t cloudlets 
 
 like a butterfly bevy of school-girls 
 
 white ffockt^ from class discipline releast, 
 
 through the sky rompt, — the fresh child's 
 
 glow joyous, of heahh, in their cheeks. Then the sun 
 
 red-golden up-bulg*d from eclipse 
 
 behind the tassel-taii'd, droop-ear'd 
 
 beast of burden, and behold I 
 
 at last — it was Day 1 
 
 O People, is it truth, sober, — or a mere 
 
 sanguine self-delusion of minds 
 
 foolishly millennial, (mad theorists I) — O People 
 
 tugging, munching the weeds unconcernedly, — 
 
 the faith, that a Sun 
 
 by thy ill-shap*n bulk, awkward, 
 
 ridiculous, yet maskt is ; — a Sun 
 
 that even now, up-struggling to shine, 
 
 shortly shall the whole heavens enkindle 
 
 to such blaze 
 
 of great glory, as hitherto seer saw not 
 
 in vision apocalyptic ? Fool I Fool ! 
 
 to ask questions of thee who art wont, 
 
 (not heeding star-gazers, nor prophets,) 
 
 to tug away still, 
 
 in the manner of thy hybrid folk 
 
 time out of mind, 
 
 industriously, at the scalp 
 
 wiry-weeded of the doomed quarry-hill I 
 
Symbolic Odes 
 
 Afterword 
 
 OT have these Lines been lying 
 in Metre's Procrustean bed; 
 their rack-extended feet, 
 or truncated limbs adorn*d 
 with barbarous jewels of Rime. 
 Free be these Lines, 
 and their Rhythm: 
 only the motion— responsive to soul— 
 of sadness or madness or mirth 
 irresistible; 
 
 yielding the body in confidence 
 absolute unto the God who would speak, 
 through leap and whirl and pose 
 in breathless obedience to Himl 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 The Beeches of Fern Bank 
 
 ^ BEECHES, deaf Fern Bank beeches, 
 I greet you in haste as I pass, 
 2J How vast, still, and tender your reach is 
 over the wavy grass I 
 Yottr boughs (droop they moveless, or stir they, 
 
 soft-swaying in the summery air,) 
 are inviting'me — all unworthy — 
 your fellowship true to share. 
 
 O beeches, dear Fern Bank beeches, 
 
 men may envy your vigor and grace : 
 for grown great in your brotherhood, each is 
 
 content with his ancient place; 
 not restive as We and ambitious, 
 
 with our fate perversely at strife* 
 "What better, dear trees, can ye wish us 
 
 than with You — to live our life ? 
 
 43 
 
Lyrics and Occasionat Verse 
 
 O beeches, dear Fern Bank beeches, 
 
 a consecrated grove ye are , 
 for Dantes and chaste Beatrices 
 
 in the glimmer of the twilight star j 
 for memories, ecstatical fancies 
 
 alone in the mid of the night ; 
 not bann'd from your shadow romance is, 
 
 or Utopian devotion to right I 
 
 O beeches, dear Fern Bank beeches, 
 
 calm warders of river and road, 
 persuasive your whispered speech is, — 
 
 with You will I make mine abode ; 
 and study as You to stand quiet 
 
 upreaching to heaven in prayer 
 for thb beautiful Earth, so nigh it, 
 
 while fondling its undulant hair I 
 
 d^ 
 
 Palmistry 
 
 Little hand, let me look at its lines — 
 I can read it, I know to-day. 
 
 Let me hold it i too brightly it shines, 
 I must read it some other way. 
 
 Let me rivet it tightly to mine — 
 
 't is the same that last night I kisst* 
 
 Let them lie in your lap. I 'II divine 
 
 palm to palm, thus, and wrist to wrist* 
 
 44 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 What I learn? I can't tell yoti, Yow eyes 
 btrt repeat what the pulse just said:-— 
 
 I have learned all I want, and am wise,— 
 
 and none shall know what IVe read. ('90) 
 
 t^ 
 
 Dirge 
 
 Drift, drift away — 
 
 none knoweth whither bottnd* 
 
 Thy hand upon the river lay, 
 
 sweet Love, and stay its sound* 
 
 The water-lilies sleep, 
 the meadows dream, 
 
 the silver willows weep 
 beside the stream, 
 past, past the steeple in the twilight gray- 
 drift, drift away I 
 
 Flow, flow along, 
 
 thou deepening River go 
 in silent majesty, thy song 
 
 sung under breath and slow. 
 The shores fast widen, fade, 
 
 and leave Thee free i 
 into the night flow unafraid, 
 
 into the sea — 
 far, far to where the waves are long and strong — 
 
 flow, flow along I ('90) 
 
 45 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 Ode in Sapphics 
 
 Sung at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Cincinnati Literary Club. 
 
 Sing the good Old Days that are gone forever, 
 rich in friendship, love ; and for sturdy virtue, 
 honest purpose, faith, and heroic action, 
 sweet to remember. 
 
 Half a hundred years of success and failure : 
 earth and sky and sea are the same, and little 
 change the ways of men ; the beholder only 
 ages and passes. 
 
 Wherefore mourn, sweet friends, or despond or marvel ? 
 Still the New Days come — for the Maker liveth — 
 young and fresh and bold, and the cry is ever 
 upward and onward I 
 
 Past and future meet in the vital present ; 
 thankfulness and trust in a pure emotion, 
 making wise the young, and the old courageous, 
 singing together : — 
 
 Sweet the good Old Days to recall and cherish; 
 sweet the good New Days to forecast and welcome ; 
 sweet the tried, the known j and the fresh surprises 
 also delightful I 
 
 Surely pain and grief to the brave and noble 
 
 yield a pleasure, yield a reward of virtue : 
 
 faith in life, death, God, and in man, our brother, 
 
 ever, forever I ('99) 
 
 46 
 
Lyrics and Occasiond Verse 
 To a Latterday Prophet 
 
 (who came late, and went forth too soon) 
 
 He came to us with soul on fire, 
 
 he came to us from the East with light : 
 
 we heard, we saw ; and God drew nigher, 
 
 and wrong was wrong, and right was right. 
 
 He went forth from among us then. 
 All soon would be as ere he came j 
 
 for men, we murmured, are but men, 
 
 and the world's ways for aye the same I 
 
 Ah, who that clomb the heights serene 
 
 in sleep, can after quite forego 
 the vision ? gainsay, that once hath seen, 
 
 its glory; and the known unknow? 
 
 For His sake life hath holier worth, 
 
 our faith made sure — whatever we are — 
 
 that still our man-corrupted Earth 
 
 shines in God's firmanent — a star I 
 47 
 
 T 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 To Souls 
 
 Among the Stars 
 
 TcU tis, tell us, we beseech you 
 
 do You love us still? 
 Earth's mad cry, speak, can it reach you 
 
 on heaven's shining hill ? 
 
 O the Stars, lights of your city 
 
 burning in your streets, — 
 tell us. Friends, for old love's pity 
 
 if love's heart yet beats. 
 
 Far forever must we linger, 
 
 hopelessly alone ? 
 Point our way with spirit-finger 
 
 to your Land unknown I 
 
 ** Ye will follow — surely follow," 
 hear their sweet reply 1 
 A mere echo strange and hollow 
 
 to our 'wilder'd cry* ('90) 
 
 48 
 
 ^ 
 
Lyrics and Occasionat Verse 
 
 After Tears 
 
 When the f ain-df ops shiver in tree-tops high, 
 
 and glisten and twinkle now crimson, now gold ; 
 
 and the green grass glows as a star-strown sky, 
 whose webs are heavy with wealth untold ; 
 
 with a glad qttick chirp, or a sweet long cheep, 
 when birds have begun to flutter and hop ; 
 
 and the bright twigs, startled from day-dreams deep, 
 in panic stidden their treasures drop; 
 
 when at wayward intervals clear loud notes 
 
 go cleaving with gladness the hush of the air ; 
 
 when, the rent clouds drifted away, earth floats 
 in sight of heaven — bid good-by to Care I 
 
 "We will fling wide windows and doors — ask in 
 the breeze that is longing to visit us. Dear; 
 
 and the sweet-heart blossoms that fain would win 
 (your honeysuckles) a welcome here I 
 
 Let us lean close. Darling 1 Let cheek touch cheek, 
 let hand be in hand as though never to part. 
 
 Let us breathe life's fullness — and no word speak — 
 
 just feel Love knitting us heart to heart I ('90) 
 
 49 
 
 A 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 A Respite 
 
 Laughing I lay on a Summer's day, 
 
 bedded in blossoming grass ; 
 and little, little did I think of Her I 
 Love is not all of life — alas I 
 'would that it were, 
 'would that it were I 
 
 Oh I that we could be but understood : 
 
 bees must their honey amass 
 when skies are blue and grasses lightly stir. 
 Love is not all of life — alas 1 
 'would that it were, 
 'would that it were I 
 
 Selfish the soul that from love-dreams stole, 
 
 watching the gay breeze pass 
 o'er ferns and flowers, but Oh I all tilings aver: 
 Love is not all of life — alas I 
 'would that it were, 
 'would that it were I ('87) 
 
 Sympathetic Music 
 
 Breath-seizing, irresistible delight I 
 
 O Singer, sweet and pure, 
 beneath the dartling stars thy magic might 
 
 who could for long endure? 
 
 50 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 Those tensest strings to skilled white fingers yield 
 
 their plaintive spirit-wails, 
 till half our sorest sorrowing is healed 
 
 wafted to Dreamland vales : 
 
 trippings of children's rosy feet, light, gay 
 
 down silver stairs of sound ; 
 sobbings of love, unanswered, far away, 
 
 of yearning heavenward bound > 
 
 dark feelings for a music still more sweet, 
 
 with aching heart astrain j 
 delicious dyings at beloved feet — 
 
 intensest, dearest pain ) 
 
 soft, soul-seducing harmonies that make 
 
 delirious fancies come, 
 and, ere their azure-winged flight they take, 
 
 with bliss the heart benumb; — 
 
 Oh I I have listened till the Past hath seem'd 
 
 changed in all bitter things; 
 till in the bitterness of bliss I dream'd 
 
 that love no sorrow brings. 
 
 Then notes fell thick in pearly rain, like tears, 
 
 and lay like gracious dew 
 Among the thirsting flowers— thought dead long years— 
 
 and lo I they bloom'd anew I ('89) 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 A February Day in Tennessee 
 
 I lie among the yellow grasses^ 
 
 so tall and dry ; 
 and, as I lie a cloudlet passes 
 
 athwart the sky. 
 
 The day is warm, though it be early 
 
 in welcome spring ; 
 flowers are not yet, nor fall dews pearly 
 
 from midnight's wing, 
 
 'Ti s Hope alone as yet who dallies 
 
 from dell to dell, 
 and through the leafless garden-alleys 
 
 bids the buds swell* 
 
 But, as yon cloudlet flieth further 
 
 evading view, 
 O where if ever, tell me, were there 
 
 such depths of blue 1 
 
 Idly I snatch the withered grasses 
 
 by handful sheaves, 
 and twist them into arching masses 
 
 with shaggy eaves, 
 
 and^lo I a gothic baptistery : 
 
 four arches keen 
 of sunny gold, and with the very 
 
 blue sky between I 
 
 52 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 And so, I fall a-dreaming sweetly 
 
 of One — God knows ♦ . • 
 (how should I name her indiscretly — 
 
 my dewy rose?) 
 
 Here have we been betroth'd and married, 
 
 and fast we fly 
 on wings of skyey genii carried, — 
 
 glad She and I, 
 
 "Whither ? Who asks in such still weather 
 
 if East or "West? 
 So, Darling, we but fare together 
 
 all ways be best I 
 
 What? but a day-dream? O dear grasses, — 
 
 alone, unwed? 
 I scan each cloudlet as it passes 
 
 high overhead , ♦ • 
 
 bound for Love's mystical far Thule, 
 
 do they not seem ? 
 O might I evermore — but truly 
 
 dream this one dream I ('8S) 
 
 e^ 
 
 The Firefly 
 
 I wonder what flowers and grasses 
 can think of the firefly light, 
 
 as his circle of splendour passes 
 
 in and out thro' their tangle all night. 
 
 53 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 There, see how they quiver as they listen, 
 
 just startled from sad bright dreams I 
 how their eyes, that are dew-drops, glisten 
 
 and return to the firefly his beams I 
 
 They hide from fiis glory qttickly 
 
 the griefs of their glad, sweet selves — 
 
 till their shadowlets faint lie thickly 
 all around as woven of elves. 
 
 On high on a throne of clover, 
 
 he rests him awhile and swings, 
 while the flowers tell him over and over 
 
 such a marvel of gossipy things I 
 
 Then kissing the crimson clover, 
 
 he opens his wings' light sweep, 
 and away is the starlike rover, 
 
 and the grasses and flowers go to sleep. ('90) 
 
 The Hawk 
 
 A BALLAD OF DAWN IN COLLOQUY 
 
 First voice — 
 
 The Mom hath tiptoe stolen near to Night 
 and cast her upon him in love's delight I 
 
 Second voice — 
 
 Their arms enlac'd, their warm close lips have met, 
 her hair all unknotted — 't is twilight yet I 
 
 54 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 Fifst voice — 
 
 With her pale self she covers him. She seems 
 to lie like a snow-drift above fiis dreams. 
 
 Second voice — 
 
 Wfiite shines she» naked mid her golden hair^ 
 and smiles as he dies — for the day is there I 
 
 Third voice — 
 
 A Pigeon flies. Lo, it darts ! it rocks in air, 
 
 till the plumes of its wings meet behind — 
 till the foe is lost I But who can share 
 my joy? "Who sing it forth? Oh I ne'er 
 
 to be gifted for utterance — doom unkind I 
 
 First voice — 
 
 Far up from the green of the field, 
 
 from the gold of the sunlit river, 
 from graves where mourners have kneePd, 
 
 from boughs with their sparkle of beads ashiver — 
 up out of the chalice of dawn — 
 
 the eye of night in the lily of day, 
 out of his nest — is the Lark upgone 
 
 on his steep, sweet, song-pav*d way. 
 
 Up, into the sky hath he fled, 
 
 where the blue and the calm dwell ever, 
 where sounds of struggle are dead. 
 
 He hath vanquished its summit with wings* endeavour. 
 Then, shake out thy shower of notes I 
 
 The veins of silence with melody pulse. 
 Sing, little Lark, from thy throat of throats I 
 
 With thy joy heaven's heart convulse I 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 Second voice — 
 
 A shadow I — a Foe — a scream I 
 
 a shtidder — grim claws — 
 fiend's beak — keen eyes that gleam I 
 
 a flash — a pause. 
 
 A pitiful scream to hear I 
 
 a rush to the sky — 
 the Foe beneath ! — no fear — 
 
 a triumph-cry I 
 
 Both voices — 
 
 Shoutt shout, 
 that the Fiend hath misst his prey I 
 Mad song, ring out 
 exhultantly I 
 
 Thrilll Thrill 1 
 In the heaven's great deep-blue eye, 
 bask thee, and still 
 
 sing, sing, on Iiigh I 
 
 Third voice — 
 
 O Lark I my soul was rescued from its foe, 
 
 but it knew not thy voicing occult 
 that can utter glee, and heavenward tlirow 
 the blissful soul to God I I glow 
 
 with the fire of thy triumph. Exult 1 Exult I 
 
 All voices and echoes — 
 
 Exult I ("90) 
 
 56 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 Dream and Waking 
 
 A Bridal-Symphony in Seven Lyrics 
 
 Emptied of wine the cup of blinding blaze, 
 wherewith the Day, that died as die prottd days, 
 
 Eve's dtisk and starlight pledged ; 
 the daisy-suns have gathered in their rays 
 
 snow-Ittminous, rosy-edgM, 
 
 Eve held her mist-blue goblet full of rest, 
 gray sleep, and silver dreams, and wishes blest, 
 
 to challenge His, aloft : — 
 both cups clasht — shiver'd, inundating the West 
 
 with slumberous passion soft. 
 
 Into the sea of Night, Day's wine hath pour'd, 
 stain'd it a moment — then gloom-billows roar'd 
 
 and foam'd and blackened all* 
 O sea of Night, vague, vast and silent-shor'd, 
 
 death-torpid thy billows fall I 
 
 Frail bougfis of precious sprays, 
 
 that twine and press sweet blossoms cheek to cheek, 
 why, when no wayward breath essays 
 to tangle itself in your bright maze, 
 
 be ye tremulous? Speak, bright branches, speak. 
 
 57 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 **A nest lies hidden here — 
 
 an old year's nest through winter safely kept ; 
 and happy boughs are w^e, for we're 
 of all the bloomy boughs most near 
 
 to where innocent birds last summer slept I 
 
 Two wayfarers are flown 
 back to the nest of merry months gone-by ; 
 
 and nestle wing to wing, unknown 
 
 of all the world save us alone, 
 as they twitter in sleep, and dream they fly,'* 
 
 A charm 
 lies closely over all ; 
 
 no harm 
 can any soul befall. 
 
 So dark, 
 so still, O lovely night . • . 
 
 But hark, 
 what heavenly-swect affright? 
 
 Burst, rise, irrepressible song I 
 
 To hearken — 't is to die, 
 to float away amid a wild-wing'd throng — 
 ecstatic notes — into the madden'd sky. 
 
 Rush waves, of impassioned sound 
 
 till stars the dark abyss 
 enkindle ; till ye flood us forth, and, drown'd, 
 cast us on shores remote of heaven's still bliss I 
 
 58 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 O boyish 
 
 Delight 
 why haunt mc 
 
 to-night? 
 
 Forgotten 
 
 almost^ • • • 
 yea, merely 
 
 a ghost — 
 
 a misty 
 
 moongleam, 
 a f ancy, 
 
 a dream, 
 
 a vision that 
 
 with dawn 
 doth fade and 
 
 is gone I 
 
 No power hast Thou at all 
 on Her, my Bride, 
 Thou couldst enthrall 
 the youth that long since died, 
 never the man Thou darest here to haunt,- 
 Wraith of the past, Spirit of ill, avaunt I 
 
 She dreams of me . . • She breathes 
 upon my breast . • * 
 my hand ensheathes 
 Her little hand . . . 'T were best 
 never to wake when dreams are over-dear,- 
 never to wake — ever to slumber here. 
 
 59 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 "What weird dream have I dream'd 
 hard to recall ? 
 Ay I so meseem'd 
 I stood in some vast hall 
 lonely and sad, a disillusioned yotrth 
 loathing the He — fearing the face of truth* 
 
 All the life since became 
 unreal ; yea She 
 a myth, a name. 
 I yearn'd to bow the knee, 
 reverent to some strange Deity, my own 
 Creature-of-cloud, "Witch-of-my-dreams unknown. 
 
 There mov'd unheard, but felt, 
 a shining Thing, 
 whose either wing 
 covered me as I knelt : — 
 ** Vision of perfect being, holy, sweet, 
 let me remain— perish, but kiss thy feet I*' 
 
 Face white 
 *neath infinite night, 
 eyes full of love and light,— 
 a mystic spell t 
 
 lips, rose 
 as'^dawn-lit snows, 
 quiver, then tightly close, 
 lest of their love too soon they tell; 
 
 60 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 soft gleams 
 of neck, dim dreams 
 of shoulders, arms, ^neath streams 
 of tumbling gloom i 
 
 Love's form, 
 divine I A storm 
 of passion shakes me. Warm 
 with thy warm self my ice-cold tomb I 
 
 Nay, Thou, 
 art even now 
 another's, for thy brow 
 my suit condemns ; 
 
 and yet . ♦ ♦ 
 What snare is set — 
 shining and dewy-wet, 
 of grasses woven and daisy-stems? — 
 
 Ensnared ? 
 Nay, — who hath dar'd 
 to bind Night's Queen dark-hair'd 
 with mesh on mesh? 
 
 to throw 
 webs, silken, aglow 
 with dew-pearls, o'er thy snow — 
 stars gather'd in heaven's garden fresh? 
 
 "Why rend 
 from end to end 
 those Eastern curtains? Bend 
 o'er me, strange Qvitcii I 
 
 Thy face 
 hath lost its grace ? 
 Fly, Siren, fly this place — 
 some foe destroyeth thee unseen I 
 
 61 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 The sun I 
 The morn begun I 
 The stars blown out each one I 
 Day's diadems 
 
 flash bright. 
 The Witch-of-night, 
 the Siren moony-white 
 hath vanished in a flare of gems I 
 
 Awake are the birds, 
 
 awake is my heart, 
 forgotten the words 
 which made Night's magical spell bttt now ; 
 
 and happier am I, 
 
 for near me Thou art : 
 so sweet and so shy, 
 my Bride I Trtrth sweeter than Dreams art Thou I 
 
 Nocturne 
 
 Evening hath come, mystery-fraught, 
 stilling the feverous pulses of thought. 
 Darling, I pray — often thou cheatest 
 
 Time of his minutes that silently fly — 
 sing me a song, sing me thy sweetest I 
 
 hearts will ache they know not why — 
 
 ache — I know not why, 
 
 62 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 hiic is a voidf lonely and black ; 
 
 lasts but a moment the meteor's track i 
 
 all that we do, all that we suffer, 
 
 lost in the gloom of a desolate sky I 
 But for thy songs seas had been rougher — 
 
 sing then, darling, sing nor sigh 
 
 seeing daylight die I 
 
 Visions of strength, visions of peace, 
 
 visions of love when our sorrow shall cease » 
 
 visions of faith, visions of splendor, 
 
 all, indistinct, in the twilight flit by* 
 
 Give me thy hand — gentle and tender. 
 
 Darling, sing I . . . They all draw nigh — 
 
 sing, and heaven is nigh I ('90) 
 
 Autumn Sadness 
 
 Sad deemest thou the glorious death of day, 
 
 when the last beams, caught by horizon-mist, 
 flare out in crimson, rose, gold, amethyst — 
 
 the prismal secrets of the living ray? 
 
 And sad the carnival of colors gay 
 
 wherewith, at the year's set, the leaves insist 
 they too are of the sunny Colorist 
 
 light-hearted children tho* the frost gainsay? 
 
 Sad is the vast laugh of the wind-clear'd sky, 
 the waste of shine on symmetries reveal'd 
 
 in the strippt boughs ? Blasphemer, why proclaim 
 with thine own mouth thy spirit's piteous shame ? 
 For still the brave, and the proud who dare not yield, 
 divine the joy of dying ere they die I ('00) 
 
 63 
 
Lyrics and Occasional Verse 
 
 Frost-Worfc 
 
 *Twas a chill, chill night, and my Love slept fast, 
 
 on her warm, soft couch asleep — 
 and a love-lorn glance at her bedside cast, 
 
 I did steal tip-toe to peep 
 thro* the moonlit window with woodbine hung, 
 
 which in spring blooms rich, but now 
 with its cIose-twin*d twigs, that their fretwork flung 
 
 on the panes, seemed sad somehow. 
 
 It was still. Th* tree-tops in their ice-mail shone, 
 
 and the ground crispt hard and keen, 
 and the stars got cold as the hours crept on, 
 
 and the tired moon drows'd between 
 indistinct blue hills. So I pray*d friend Frost, 
 
 as my soul breathed warm good-byes, 
 for my own sweet Love, who in sleep lay lost, 
 
 to record Love's hallowed sighs. 
 
 Then I stole forth sure that she soon must know 
 
 how I watcht all night anear — 
 nor disturbed glad dreams as the moon set slow, 
 
 and the stars droop*t 'reft of cheer. 
 Ere the day dawn'd fully a sunbeam sought 
 
 from her eyelids sleep to shame — 
 for the hoar panes glister'd where Frost's skill wrought 
 
 in a fern-frond wreath my name I ('90) 
 
 64 
 
 LBJe'07 
 
Impromptu 
 
 To common Seekers — nothing btrt a drop 
 of water^ shaken on a clover's head 
 
 of purple bloom, near which the sparrows hop 
 in glee that they are feathered well, and fed ; 
 
 to Roamers, there, at loving distance — stop I — 
 a tear of heaven, a star of holy dread — 
 And yet, the best is never seen, or said* 
 
 65 
 
 (V) 
 
^ 
 
H 
 
 6 
 
 
 O 
 
 c 
 
 K 
 
 [WILLIAM NORMAN GUTHRIE