Utstitfi! anil ^fjabotDtl • • HATDENSANDSX ■>^ / Class. Book. ^5 55^7 Afe7l5 GofiyrightN"_ iqii COPYRIGHT DEPOSn^ '^ HJ^ \ \ A V L Ji LIGHTS AND SHADOWS I.tsf)t£i anti ^tatiotDfi BY HAYDEN SANDS H NEW YORK W)t Be jnille Company 145 W. 45TH Street Copyright, 191 1, by HAYDEN SANDS ^ \ ©Ci.A:i8f>735 TO LUTES AND LYRES To lutes and lyres fain would I bring Some rich melodious offering, To hail, invisible, those Choirs That fold the flames and fan the fires, And draw round Life the magic ring; That from my pipes true love might fling Songs of a new seraphic Spring, Rending Lifers dreams of lost desires To Lutes and Lyres. But should bare frosts about me cling. To bear me down, to clip my wing. On Wind, on Wave, that still aspires To change and range yet never tires, Then with the Stars Til louder sing To Lutes and Lyres. CONTENTS PART I SONGS OF LIGHT PAGE Song of the Dawn . 13 Songs Unheard 16 At Venice 16 In After Years 18 The Dream Child 19 Love and Hope 20 Earthbound 21 White and Red 23 By Still Waters 24 The Dancer 25 The Question 27 The Open Road 28 The Shadow 29 Love's Serenade 30 June 31 The Merry House 32 Remembrance 33 Beyond 34 Hope 36 Life 37 Francesca De Rimini 38 Diana, Lady of Light 40 The Dream of Gold 41 A Summer's Idyl 43 The Coming of Dawn 45 Childhood 46 CONTENTS PAGE Constancy 47 A Prayer at the Dawn 48 Thoughts 49 Heart of the Loving Flame 50 The Three Oreads 52 The Wandering Voice^ 53 When the Hills are in Song 55 The Revelers 59 A Song for the Navy 60 The Call of the Wild 65 A Summer's Phantasy 66 A Song to Beauty 69 PART n SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE A Supplication 73 The Ultimate 76 The Vast Love 76 Time, Not of Man 78 Night Will Soon be Here 79 Mortality 84 The House of Sin 88 Earth-Free 92 Dream-Spirits 93 The Worker 94 Hymn to Evening 94 Sunset . . . . , .96 At the Eventide 97 November 99 A Prayer at the End of Things 99 The Waif 102 Brief is the Night 108 Love Lives Anew 108 Shadows iii Twilight 112 The Sea Change 113 CONTENTS PAGE The Difference 114 Dreams of Eternal Youth 115 •' Hold Fast, O Soul 116 Age 117 Children of the Sun 117 A Nocturne 121 The Last Flowers 122 Oh, Blame Me Not 123 Fly, Shadow, Fly 124 Song of the Night Wind to Diana 127 Sleep 129 As We Go 130 The Path of Tears 131 Soul i35 Uncertainty i35 The Toll 136 Fidelity 136 Good Night I37 The Garden of Love 138 Flight 140 X PART I SONGS OF LIGHT SONG OF THE DAWN I am the Dawn! My wings are drawn From the lips of the World's bright Dreams; As I rush along With Earth's new song, On the floods of my orient streams; For I am the child % Of love that is wild — Of life that is new and strong! With brows of gold, And lips that hold The red of the rose-red wine, I leap and I run From the night that is done, Through the heavens that all are mine. Tinging my quivers In the broad bright rivers Of the shafts of the great blood sun. Whose mists unfold In shadowy gold, On the winds of the world slow waki«g; In yellow, white. And violet, [13] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS And bolder colors, shaking Their lights overhead All purple and red, On the stars that are all but set. As I toss the brine Of my crimson wine On the petals of Earth's pale flowers, When the lights arise From the filmy eyes Of Love and her paramours; Weaving my locks With gay hollyhocks To fling to the aureate skies. With daffodils And cloudy hills Of hyacinth and roses. That I breathe into blooms From the misty rooms Which the light of love discloses; As life attains Her fuller stains From the weft of the brightening looms. Till I fade away By the light of day With my crowds that follow after; Singing on flutes As best each suits — Morning, and all her laughter; [14] SONGS OF LIGHT Rending the skies With the fires that rise From the lips of their clear stringed lutes. As they ride the clouds In riotous crowds, Pelting with rosy showers, The cloudy shoals Which the Day unrolls All carpeted in flowers; Flinging the wreaths Of their sun-bright leaves From the stars of their aureoles. From whose lights arise Those rhapsodies On the wings of the winds eolian, That awake the hymns Of my Cherubims Rending the skies with their glorious paen, Whose mysteries Are the symphonies Sung by invisible Seraphims! And never a flower But feels the power Of the sounds of my lyric shell ! As I pass along With that heavenly throng That sings so strangely well; [15] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS For the heavenly fires Are my bright lyres And the wings of the wind my song! SONGS UNHEARD Silver Harp, bright Harp, Harp with lips of gold ! Tell me of that music which the lost Worlds hold ! Tell me of that music, of those songs that unheard sweep. When the winds are drifting seawards, when the World is one with sleep. Full Heart, sad Heart, Heart of earthly Pain, Wash away the ashes, wash away the stain! Music of the Inner Soul, wash away the red. If thou wouldst hear our Paeons, Songs of the Dead! AT VENICE The moon is shining bright, The winds have ceased to roam, The sea is white with light; O Love, to thy casement come ! Now Dreams of Night bid Dawn appear, And Daylight hides her bitter tear, Love, wilt thou never hear! [i6] SONGS OF LIGHT My bark with sail is set, To bear thee out with song; O Love, forget, forget, Daylight and all her throng; The stars grow dim, the hour is late, The Dawn too soon will leave her mate. Let us no longer wait! But feed me from above With kisses deep and long, And I shall be thy Love, And thou shalt be my Song; And I will make us all of gold A Harp, that evermore will hold Music, should love grow cold. And thou shalt live to bear All joy for thee and me. And I will wreathe thy hair With lilies of the sea. All gathered from those far sea streams That sleep within the moonlight's beams. Hung with their heavy dreams. And I shall make thy lips Nurse the wild strains Love brings; And show thee wondrous ships. And tell thee of strange things; And visions of new life shall rise To fold with light our filmy eyes. When Dawn to Daylight dies. [17] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS With Love upon the sea To guide our little boat, Ah, such our dreams shall be, That we will one day float Beyond the waves, not knowing how The wreath of stars upon our brow Fell from the golden glow. Love, wilt thou never hear! The moon is waning white. The day but hides her tear. The east is streaked with light; Oh, let us now no longer roam. But through the starlight, come, oh, come, Here to the Heart's own home. IN AFTER YEARS Should Love awake from roses, bled To paler white from once full red, I would not ask the reason why, I would not wait for her reply. Should Love come touch my wintry bed. But I would bind about my head (In memory of those years long fled) Roses, that live and cannot die, Should Love awake! [i8] SONGS OF LIGHT And all the Dreams that Youth has bred, That rise like wraiths when light is shed, Would round me range from earth and sky, To sing again and testify; Though eye be dimmed the heart's not dead, Should Love awake! THE DREAM CHILD Come, strike the lyre stout and bold. Now Age her Song's revising! Brightly she leans from her casement cold; Bright are her eyes, and bright the fold That girdles her locks, of burnished gold; The new bent moon is rising! Dress her in roses red and rare, Open her casement prison! And fling a rose from her sun-stained hair, To the starry world that linger there: Music is sweet on the Summer's air. When the full faced moon is risen. Still is the earth and still the skies, With only Love complaining; And stiller yet the Dreamer's eyes. As over the hills she onward flies, Back to the vale where the Dream Child lies; The Summer's moon is waning. [19] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Moan us a chant of days of old, And let us be forgetting! Come with lilies, come with cold Camellias from the outer world; And let faint beads be faintly told ; The languid moon is setting! Cold are the wild winds — let them rave! And let us but forget! And bear her to some lonely cave, Where leafless boughs and sedge shall wave, Dim Memorials, o*er her grave; The Harvest moon hath set! LOVE AND HOPE Oh, ask me not if still I love! Love such as mine can never die. It dwells in Springtime with the Dove, In Summer with the clouds above Freeing to earth and sky. Love, Love, sweet Love, Love that can never die. Oh, ask me not if still I hope ! Hope born of Love can never pass; It dwells upon a Summer's slope Where winter's storm can never cope To blight the good green grass; Hope, Hope, sweet Hope, Hope that can never pass. [20] SONGS OF LIGHT EARTHBOUND By shores that end not, yet away Stretch ever from the light of day, Three forms I met, in mantles grey. To me the first had long since died ; The second came all leaden eyed; The last, all faint, sang by their side. ** And I am Grief,'* she sorrowing said ; '^ The second Love — we twain are wed, The first is Hope, our Child long dead. " Dim years ago a winding-sheet Was drawn round our arms and feet; Now only in the night we meet. " Yes, years ago from yonder door. We came with Death to this same shore. And in our arms our dead Child bore, ** Unto the gates of Paradise! And then we opened wide our eyes. Alas! we knew not of such skies. " We felt they were a deeper blue, There flowers more rich than earthwards grew. And yet, it was not as we knew, [21] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS " Yes, we of Earth conceived in sin, Heard not of their high violin, Yet all the Angels took us in ! " And bore to us with outstretched arms, White lily wreaths and stately palms, And kissed our lips to heavenly psalms. " And all God's Choristers were there To gird about our aureoled hair. With ropes of pearls and emeralds rare, "And bands of gold with jacinth set; Yet we could never quite forget Of the dear earth where we had met. " So now within the aging years We come amidst her Glooms and Fears, To live again our earthly tears. " And when the World is lost in sleep Once more our former dreams we keep. And sometimes smile, yet more times weep. " No, not for crowns with bright jewels set Can we of Heaven quite forget The dear green Earth where first we met/' Thus murmuring sadly they at last. Like to the winds, all seawards past. Like to the mist when night falls fast. [22] SONGS OF LIGHT Yet in their wake I heard among The trail of Dead, and it was long The whispering of this same sweet song. Yes, ever as I hear the rain Upon the dead, the same refrain Comes whispering to me back again: ** Though all our Dreams with Song be set, Yet never can we quite forget The dear green Earth where first we met." WHITE AND RED He saw her not but heard her sing Soft madrigals of earliest Spring; The while she tossed him from her hair, A Rose both white and mild ; And he below, who lingered there, Knew 'tu^as a gentle Child! Long years are passed ! Again she sings, Yet now in strains of fuller Springs; He hears, and coming with the years, Now stained to deeper wine. He finds the Rose of bitter tears. Redder, yet more divine! [23] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS BY STILL WATERS Often I hear by the lapse of the water Of a weird and wonderful sea, A sound that is fleet as of hurrying feet, Of feet that would fain be free; And I think of the Seaman's daughter, And I wonder can it be she ! That murmuring, sweet as the sound is fleet — Sweet sound that can no more be. Yes, often I think of the Seaman's daughter (I wonder can she now be) ; How we looked through our love to the stars all above ; How we dreamed of a life that would be (A life that could never quite be). Yes, oft as I walk by the water Comes echoing, wild and free, A strange dim song, and it sweeps along The waves of the same dear sea. Oh, I love to hark by the edge of the water Of that weird, irresistible sea; And the sound of the shells, they are all my bells. Whispering old things to me. [24] SONGS OF LIGHT And I think of the Seaman's daughter, And I wonder, can it be she ! Those whispering bells in the tiny shell's, Murmuring of things to be. Yes, often I think of the Seaman's daughter When the Night is on the Sea, And dream of those faces, life's holy places. As I weep by my Willow Tree, By the foot of my Cypress Tree. Yes, oft I go down to the edge of the water (O God, that I too were free!). To dream of those faces, life's holy places, That ceased when she ceased to me ! THE DANCER Imperious eye with passion set, The whirling click of Castanet, Oh, never can I quite forget The Dance, the Girl, the Cigarette. The gauzy veil of purpling mist. The sinuous curves of arms and wrist; At every turn, at every twist. Glances, where fires all strange persist. [25] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS And many a strand and careless curl Of ebon tresses all awhirl; And spangled damasks that unfurl In amorous waves of gold and pearl. And filaments of clinging lace! What painter's brush could hope to trace, That rhythmic poise now slow with grace, Now, wild emotion in its place. Why linger here? The hour is late; You of the West can never sate ; They of the East alone can fete, The flashing eye insinuate. The changing attitude, now bent Madly to rude abandonment. Imperious, pose insolent; Yet now again all penitent. As bending low in sensuous dips. Faster and faster on she slips. Wilder, more wild the music drips. Impetuous, from the viol's lips. To swaying forms that beckon on From generations past and gone; Dim phantoms not of flesh or bone. Whose magic lures the music on. [26] SONGS OF LIGHT Oh, ask me not how beauty throws Motion and glamour, Wine and Rose, Into the dance as on she goes, The East but knows, the East but knows! THE QUESTION Dear heart, if all my flowers Were kindled to red wine; If all my wild desires Could fan to ardent fires The lyrics of my lyres. What songs would then be thine! What dreams of old dead hours; On Seas what Stars would shine ! If all my fruits and flowers Were crushed to crimson wine! If all thy songs were flowers, And all these flowers mine, What flames would feed the fires, To wake those same sweet lyres! If Love that never tires. And Life but nursed the Vine! What rich dim golden hours Would shrine the wine divine! If all thy songs were flowers, And all the vintage mine/ [27] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Yet if our dreams were flowers, And all our blood was wine, Could Love again those fires Stain with the old desires; Could Life, and Love and Lyres, Rise as incarnadine! I wonder! Could such hours Again be thine and mine! Though Life were in the flowers. And Love were in the wine ! THE OPEN ROAD Oh, good it is the long green road That lures us on with joy all free; And good it is to hear the Sea Vet know that Earth is thy abode. To walk with open heart abroad. To pay, for once, to Care no toll; The sunlight in thine eyes, thy Soul Alone with Nature and its God. [28] SONGS OF LIGHT THE SHADOW One dreary night, as I did pass, I heard a murmuring of the grass; " And soon with us he'll make his bed, And we will grow from his cold head." " Nay,'* cried the leaves above, " I ween From such as him we take our green " ; ** And I," cried Red Rose, " once again Shall soon renew my vaunted stain." And Gentian, " Not from the blue skies, I steal my blue, but from his eyes," And one gold aster, lingering there, " And I the gold from his gold hair." That night I heard a knocking; wide I flung the door — Death stepped inside ! " And welcome Shadow to my hall, I fear thee not, for I know all. " My ashes lovelier form will take; My Soul to newer birth awake." I turned, but Lo! the Night had gone. Now all the hills were light with Dawn! [29] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS LOVE'S SERENADE Many the dreams that I have sought, Yet lovelier far Than these, of thee one simple thought; The wild red rose, the mild guitar, The one large star. That night of nights long years ago. When I among The Nightingales, far, far below. Sang from amidst the shadowy throng My wild love song. Sang from the dusk, that I might share Those dreams that fold The stars within the Night's dim hair. And bind thee round with songs all told In moonbright gold. And ropes of rubies that should bleed, Till Love had kist Away all pain ; and moonstones freed From sorrow, pearls and amethyst. All lovely mist. [30] SONGS OF LIGHT Oh, Lips now pale, where blooms once red Fed wan delight; Where dreams still feed though life be fled! Where is thy song, that Summer's night, The white star's light! The casement bright, the starlit air. And you above With languorous arms and falling hair, Trembling, like some faint timorous dove - Ah, this was love ! This, this was Life! Until there rose The cold blight Moon, And wailing winds, and blasts that chose To woo thee with their bitter tune — Soon, soon, too soon ! JUNE Thin curving brow that knows no worldly pain; Strange eyes, wherein the moon her moonbeam meets; And lips, ah! lips flushed with as deep a stain As summer fruits hung full with ripening sweets; And breath wherein but Beauty ever rests — Oh, Love, Love, Love, to dream upon thy breasts ! [31] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS To know that thou art mine, and I, Heart, thine! Two Songs as one upon the night winds blown! Two flowers full stained from one perpetual wine, Midst music flung for us, and us alone Earthwards, from all the stars upon the Sea; Ah, Life, Life, Life, that Death can ever be! To hear the melancholy rains aloof, Moaning upon those leaves that ever seem To interlock their greenness in one roof, Shading to dreams begetting lovelier dreams; Lips far away, like Dawn, from earthly sorrow; Ah, Grief, Grief, Grief, what fruits can Love not borrow ! To feel thou art the seed, and I the sheaf. To hold that love from earthly griefs above; That every bloom, yea, every tender leaf. Trembles the hour, for this our holy love! When all about new fruitage gilds the bough; O, Love, Love, Love, to dream forever now! THE MERRY HOUSE Bells, bells that are tolling. Drearily, drearily; Wedding bells rolling And rolling all cheerily. [32] SONGS OF LIGHT Grave diggers flinging, Yet, singing merrily; Somewhere, tears springing, Verily, verily! ** Oh, what a merry Home! " Little Worm cried : " And welcome, and welcome, Soon all to my side." REMEMBRANCE Beloved, do I but think of thee, Thy gentle ways, thy voice, thy grace, The beauty of thine earthly face, When once we walked beside the Sea; I need must grieve what now thou art, A Cloud, a Light, a sun-fed Hour, The Rainbow changing to the Flower; For now with these thou art a part ! Oh, could I feel thee but again — Thy hair all warm, thy lips, thine eyes ; What starlight dreams would then arise, To wash away all earthly pain ! [33] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS But thou art yet than these more fair, A Lyre of the Wind, a Song ; A part of that great Sunset Throng That stains the west with sun-stained hair. The whispering of the first faint light, A note in the vast symphony Of Nature's music, wild and free ; A moan upon the lips of Night ! And that is why I still rejoice Midst withering leaf and dropping fruit ; Hoping still yet like some wild lute To be the medium of thy Voice! BEYOND Lovely is Summer, lovelier Spring (Scatter the pale white Jasmine flowers) ; See how the May-Bird plumes its wing; Frail are Spring's faint hours! Oh, weave your locks with sheaves of gold, And a dash of red for the heart that is cold ! See how the ripe fields mellow now (Sorrow is fleet, yet Pleasure fleeter) ; Sweet are the blooms of May's white bough, Yet Summer's fruitage sweeter; Most lovely Dream with the warm red lips. Oh, crush the vine ere the Blood-Moon dips. [34] SONGS OF LIGHT How shrill the winds of Evening sigh (Loosen your locks for white Lotus flowers) ; Hark how the timid Dawn creeps by, Cold is Death's last hours! Oh, Beauteous Star on the still far sea, How red the blood-rose of Memory! Away, away, and let me lie Here where the sere leaves fall together; See how the swallows southward fly! Ah me ! what Wintry weather ; What is June when the rose is fled, What is Life when Red Love lies dead! What is Life now the Summer weeps. To straw and sickle and Winter Moon ! Yet what is Death now the Harvest sleeps. All full with seed for a later June, Midst the wrecks and dreams of the Summer tide! Oh, what is Night though the Day has died! Then come with me where those phantoms rise, Whose aureoles are Life's mysteries; For the dreams of earth are the light of their eyes ; Their songs, Earth's brightest imageries! Yet the fringe of their violet robes of light Marks but the marge of the Infinite! [35] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS HOPE Her hands upon the harp's bright strings Played in a tremulous rhapsody; Like the sound of leaves when the aspen tree Meets the rush of the wind's free wings. 7^ ^ 7^ ¥^ 7^ ^ Oh, who has not heard the beauteous song, Oh, who has not felt her changeful lyres, Striking their chords in immortal fires. To the Dreams of the Years as they pass along! Oh, who has not seen her sitting there. Midst the golden sheaves of an Autumn night, When winds are low and the moon hangs bright Drenching the strands of her starlight hair. And who has not seen her in Summer's June, And who has not heard her when cold winds blow, When the trees are swept by the Winter's snow; Singing, singing the same strange tune! And who has not felt her in Morning's prime. When the red sun rose from his rose-red bed; And who has not heard her when day was dead. And the heart grew sick from its ceaseless time. [36] SONGS OF LIGHT And who shall not hear her forevermore, Playing the same wild rhapsody ! Like the song of the Dawn to a troubled sea, By the tides of a far dim distant shore. LIFE Life, thou art a lovely tear. Like to a dew-drop on a flower, Trembling, to find how little here Is wealth and power. The heaven's moment offering, Quivering, a sweet yet bitter thing. Till but the echo of the Song We pass along! Thou art a drop from that great heart Which bids all things around us move ; Seeking to find thy counterpart. Enduring Love ! Love that redeems for one small hour; A lovely and a lowly flower. Touching our lips with stain of pain, Yet not in vain. Alluring as the dusk your dawn. Evasive as the mists your flight, A sudden star from starlight torn, A day's delight ; [37] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Thou frail inconstant flickering brand Tossed through the years from hand to hand, What fears and hopes beset thy breath ! What Truths thy death! Unknown Child by Beauty set Upon the dim Eternities, That rim and rise yet soon forget What round us lies; Thou art the great Invisible, Our Morning and our Evening bell ; Thee, may we touch, yet may not know Till Death lays low. FRANCESCA DE RIMINI Last night I saw them pass, last night, once only. When down the hills went Eve upon her way; Two astral shades upon the Silence dreaming. Passing as one upon their perilous way. Deep in a cloud of starry mist upborne. No lute, no harp, no choric chant, no song; Silent they passed upon their songless way; Seeming they fled like Night, God's happier throng. Yet on the wind's melodious moan than this. Of all God's Choristers, no Spirit deems To sing in clearer light — the flaming glow. That circlewise halos their inner dreams. [38] SONGS OF LIGHT The earthly love, the light, the sacrifice. That spurned those vows which vainly Earth did tell! I saw it pass; no holier light Illumes God's brightest angel, Uriel. And on their arms the Amaryllis slept, Still as those shafts the winter's moonbeams throw; And three white lilies pressed their mingling breast. Cold, cold as Death, and whiter than white snow. And on their lips, invisible, the snake Still fed upon the moonbeams cold and white, And yet their eyes, turned from their arduous mate, Saw not the darkness of enduring night. For ever and anon, like throbbing stars. The old love kindled came, and died away, Past like the meteors through the night descending. Bright for an instant midst their starry fays. Impassioned Love too deep, too deep the pain To urge with moan upon the midnight hours; No cry they made, but fading like a dream Dropped in my upturned hands two mingling flowers. Flung to my hands upturning to the stars, Two flowers full fed upon the Heaven's rain; One, nursed with waters of enduring love, One, purged by fires of unending pain. [39] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS And these two flowers I hold, these, only these. When lights the moon the far upsailing cloud ; Two astral shades upon the midnight dreaming. Urged by the Phantoms of a countless crowd. Thus through the years happily they bear their cross, Born by the winged dreams that round them rise! Oh, what can alter such great primal love. Whose Night is brighter than our Paradise! DIANA, LADY OF LIGHT White Lady of Light, from the places Of viol and violet trees. Rise up with the Night's misty faces, Swing out over hills, over leas, From the musical magical seas; From the mystical murmuring fountains Wan phantasy, pallid and pale. Oh, come over meadows and mountains For thy measureless sail. All tinseled in tremulous shadows, All hidden in quivering light, Over marsh, over moors, over meadows. From the fanciful wake of thy flight. Look down from thy perilous height; Bright Beauty past all understanding. Thou symbol of ultimate rest; [40] > ^'ONGS OF LIGHT Oh, Point us, Oh, Tell us the landing Of thy querulous quest. Art thou seeking, with love like a Mortal, Some dream of a shadowy throng. As up from the Night's misty portal With music to waft thee along. Thou comest with harp and with song? Art thou lonely, all pale in thy streaming, Art thou weary of wandering far? Or hast thou deep caught to thy dreaming The flame of a Star? Oh, why should I link thee with Sorrow, Light, luring as love and as brief; Why, why should I chant thee and follow With myrtles, and flowers of grief, With lilies all white in the leaf! Why, why, but that I am a Shadow, Of Earth, and must weave as I weep; Forgive ; from the wraiths of the meadow Pass on — I would sleep. THE DREAM OF GOLD Thin strands of gold and lilies loosely spread. Round arms all languid, arms of milky hue. And airs, warm airs breathed from full petals red. All ripely red, heaped where the June winds blew [41] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS To lips (where pearls did He) the stain of love; And song like myrrh and incense, richly fed From melting Winds, to mellowing fruits above; Where rose and lily, jealous lest they bare Their blended dreams unto the Moon's soft light, To far strange sounds of music, drench the air With drowsy languors through the long sweet night, When all is still and the warm Moon swings late Into that stillness which the white stars share, And all the night with love is satiate; And pearl and ruby melting to one wine Mingling (where emeralds hang) with crimson fruits, Ripening green boughs to drops incarnadine. While sun-browned boys play on with ivory flutes To maidens passing by in honeyed ease. Bearing on silver salvers bowls that shine With odorous oils from the far southern seas; And slaves of ebony slow filing by. With leopard skins and chalices of pearl, And silken hammocks, where dark maidens lie Far gazing to those clouds that ever curl Into the dreams of young Endymions, Fashioning such dreams, each one beneath his sky. Till Winter twilights turn to Summer suns; As Dawn with ruddy youth to flute and fife Looms from rich shores on clouds of shotted gold, [42] I SONGS OF LIGHT Where love enduring, music and song are rife, Flushing to red the crystal urns that hold The crushed-out wine of Love's eternal streams; Such, such is Poesy, Earth's maturing life. And Death's last token, being Life's long Dream. A SUMMER'S IDYL Beneath the hawthorne tree Come sit vi^ith me; Here where the Summer's long noon shadows pass; Here in the cooling shade Whose leaves have laid Their shadowy fingers on the wind-stirred grass. Come sing to me, And bring to me Out of the newer day some fresh born joy; Wield thy sweet quill To Nature's fill. And gather thy notes From the birds' happy throats ; Sing, sing in joyous ecstasy, Brown-throated shepherd boy. Here on the grassy lea Come sit by me; Here where soft hills of waving poppies keep The tender blue-eyed flowers [43] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Their paramours Through the warm languorous hours in stillest sleep. Come sing to me And fling to me Garlands all wreathed with bright auroral songs; Cast to the streams Thy noonday dreams; Pipe, pipe on thy quills Of the joys of the hills; Sing, sing of flocks and pastures fresh, Strains of glad shepherd throngs. Come with thy pipings clear ! Fain would I hear Thy melodies rich fading through the vale; Till all the green hillside In shadows wide Down with far dreams, slips like a glimmering sail. Come sing to me, And bring to me The Voice of Youth, the Rose, the Flute of Gold ; Wield, wield, thy quill To every hill. For Youth cannot cloy. Brown-throated shepherd boy! Sing, sing in joyous ecstasy; Soon will the shadows fold ! [44] SONGS OF LIGHT THE COMING OF DAWN Calm as the coming of Dawn, At the first faint touch of light, I arose with the last veil drawn From the lips of the sleeping Night; When thinnest song first lightly floats Inviolate, from the Linnet's notes. Awakening in a thousand throats, The gladness of the Day. Then Dawn to my window-sill came, Dawn, with the stars in her hair; Purple and golden the flame That rose through the tremulous air ; And then she fanned me with her wings. And whispered old forgotten things. Until again from long lost Springs There loomed the newer Day. Her breath from my being updrew Joy, from the soul of my song ; I felt we were one and I knew The breed of that glorious throng. Who bending, pressed their lips on mine, And cried: ** Dear Child, all joy is thine If thou to our sweet song incline: * Hope, and the bright-eyed Day.* " [45] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS CHILDHOOD Little People of a day, Dreaming in your world alone; Smiling, tearing, laughing, gay, Fleet of foot and lithe of bone: Who shall say but that you are Of some new and lovelier star? With your great mild open eyes Pondering in your strange demesnes, Looking at us in surprise When we ask you what it means ; Who shall say but that you are Wafted from a dream afar? Singing songs we know not of ; Seeking out with vain appeal What there is in Life or Love, Till the Years upon you steal ; Who shall say but that you are Children of a sunnier star? Who shall say your simple joys. Things we little understand. Wondering eyes and childish toys, Mystic lines from tiny hand, Are not from some wandering star, Signals, from across the bar? [46] SONGS OF LIGHT To the airy flowers born, Painting Earth with fairy skies; Looking to each lovelier dawn With your full and dreamy eyes; Who shall say but that you're not Of some song now long forgot! CONSTANCY Glory, though the day has fled, Trails upon the sea; Beauty, though the bloom be dead. Lingers in the memory. Hope still dwells within the eyes. Loitering, though our joys be run; So though Dawn to Daylight dies. Love will linger on! A PRAYER AT THE DAWN O Christ in Heaven, be with me, lend A heart both meek and mild; Look down on me, thy little friend. Behold thy gentle Child. [47] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Tonight, if in my troubled sleep My breath Ye deem to take, I pray Thee, Christ, my soul to keep; Be with me when I wake! I know some day I go afar; And yet I will not fear; For if I know not every star, I know that Thou art near. Awake, asleep, O never let Thy words be quite forgot; Yet if I should one hour forget, O Christ, forget me not! Today I questioned midst my joys, The answer I did miss! And pouting, threw away my toys; Forgive me, Lord, for this. And let me know that Thou art near, Christ ever with me be. Although / may not always hear The words Thou speak for me. And teach thy little child to hold The sun within her heart ; Though meadows brown be bare with cold, And every bird depart. [48] SONGS OF LIGHT And teach me, Lord, to gladly live Content with bread to dine ; Remembering how the many give Praises, for less than mine. O Christ, be ever with me ; lend A heart both meek and mild ; Look down on me, thy little friend; Behold a simple Child. THOUGHTS There is a power In a simple flower, And a charm in a child's mild eyes, And a wild delight In a shaft of light As it falls through the sorrowing skies (When last lights sweep Calm waters deep And the sound of the daylight dies), That are strange with hope, and as potent to me As the opening leaves of a leafing tree; Or the beacon light on a spaceless sea When the waves are driven white; Or the symbols of Light when the stars are caught In the mesh, which the infinite heights have wrought. [4<>] i! LIGHTS AND SHADOWS There is a vague sense of eternity In the very act of the mind's small flight; That bids the prison soul be free, Though our world is a world of mystery (Where Death and Grief Breed misbelief), And our thoughts are as endless night. HEART OF THE LIVING FLAME Like a phantom cloud, like a driven leaf, Child of the dim unknown; We have passed from the paths of a fruitless grief Hither and hither blown; And now with the throng as it passes along We sing to a different breath. Though we know the chase and the fitful race Is one with the Song of Death. We have tried to live as those others live Who pass in their barren way, To those skies where passionless prophets give False signs at the ebbing day; But we chose to close but Love's blood red rose In a chalice of molten gold. Though our tears still rain, in vain, in vain, On the fires our hearts still hold. [50] n SONGS OF LIGHT Though our fitful pulse it beats, it beats, For the clearer, stronger light; And the Dance of Death in the world still cheats Day with her leprous night; Yet drop, by drop, as the phantoms stop, On the rush of the wind's wild sway. We crush the full flowers to the cup that is ours, The cup that is ours for a day. We gather the blooms of the ripest bough, And sing through the Morning's rain, And wreathe red roses round our brow. Though our cheeks be pale with pain. Though the eye be dull and the heart be full With the dust of a mortal birth. Yet we sing and laugh as we ever quaff From the dreams of the bright eyed earth. We have left the grey of the ashen day Where the stars but seldom beam. And cleft the tears of the bitter way. To dream but esthetic dreams; Where the open love of the stars above Is the stain of the weft of the loom. Where Beauty waits at her golden gates 'Midst flowers of deathless bloom. Oh, Beauteous Wraith from Earth's forms long fled, Heart of the Living Flame; Though Autumn Winds and leaves that are bled Rush on with the years the same; [51] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Though cold rains rave on the Lover's grave, And beat where their wild lips fed, Still bright is thy Light, Dream of the Night, Soul of the passioned dead! THE THREE OREADS First a nymph from out her girth Offered pearls and worldly treasures; " Hast thou nothing more of worth Than such baubles, dreams of pleasure! Nay, sweet nymph, I'll none of thee, Roses are too frail for me; Not for me such fleeting treasures. Changeable, as maiden's pleasures." Then a second from her hair Plucked the lily of cold sorrow; " Come, with me my myrtles share ! " " Nay, sweet sister, I can borrow No such amulet from thee; Lilies are too cold for me ; I would crave a softer sorrow If I must sweet sorrow borrow." Then a third of milder mien. She whose name is Melancholy, [52] SONGS OF LIGHT Showed me the more lasting green Of the constant winter holly; So I chose with her to be, Favoring such constancy, Rather than to sometime dwell With a Rose ephemeral. THE WANDERING VOICE Bright Voice, I cannot name thee. My ignorance doth shame me, And yet thy song should fame thee 'Midst all thy forest peers! So thoughtwards will I chase thee With harmless words, and raise thee A pyre of song to praise thee, In light of after years. In other days thy measures. Richer than vaunted treasures, IVe heard with rising pleasures. And felt another birth; Like music at the Dawning, You linger till the Morning Passing, with her bright awning. Lights the awakening Earth. IVe heard the Finch and other Songsters of greenwood cover, [53] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Yet never such another As your clear liquid voice; Pray linger and be near me, And never more now fear me, Your notes do more than cheer me And make^e to rejoice. I would that on the morrow That I myself might follow Thee to some greenwood hollow Beneath thy favorite tree; Where honey bees are sipping, And dews are softly dripping. And happy hours slipping. So joyous and so free. There would I spend ripe hours Amongst thy paramours. Mingling with soft-eyed flowers Until the sun had set; And all the City's madness, Its sorrow and its sadness. Would change to lasting gladness — Could I but then forget ! rd join the songs of Even, Looking to brighter Heaven, And linger in the leaven Of quiet and repose; [54] SONGS OF LIGHT I know I should be better From turmoil and her fetter, If I could quite forget her, And all her empty shows. And when the hills ceased singing, And when the moon in swinging. Into her nightly winging Illumed each starry vale. We'd dream that we were sailing With soft airs never failing. To sound of lone bewailing. Of some far Nightingale. Must one for aye continue To sweat with bone and sinew. Till ardent Death shall win you And urge you to his throng! Clear Wandering Voice, aspire. Burn us with thy bright fire! Up higher yet — still higher. The beauty of thy song! WHEN THE HILLS ARE IN SONG When the old brown Earth To the joy of rebirth Upheaves with the seed Of Life, great in her girth! [55] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS When the sap runs strong, And the hills are in song, With Life — the returning Of Love and her throng! How Laughter goes flinging The leaves she is bringing, To bind Love, to blind Love, To the song she is singing! To bind Love, to blind Love, Till Life shall but find Love All lost in the rose leaves Joy hurls from above. Then nothing to borrow But pleasure. Old Sorrow All palsied slow fades. With his crowds that on follow. Winter, low bending; Grief, knowing no ending. All bent with sere hollies ; And lastly uprending The seed-bosomed lands — Youth, close with his bands Of Revelers, poising Their flower-arched hands; [56] SONGS OF LIGHT Blowing and throwing Those petals unknowing Of Winter, so joyous Is Life in the growing. With Dance at his heels, And Laughter that reels Wild music — such pipings As Age never feels. And Jollity, Mirth, With the good brown Earth, Who quaffing and laughing Urge Love to her birth. Urge clear love, and dear love, And we that should fear love, So short is the Summer Of those that are near love. Then hear it, nor fear it. The song of the Spirit; Go find it, go bind it, Lest Winter be near it. Go deed it thy years. Go seed it thy fears, Should Summer turn Winter, Go deed it thy tears. [57] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Then scatter Red Roses Stained red where Love throws his Red lips to the petals Of life that uncloses. As ever they hover From covert to cover, Love chasing his fancies Through summers of clover. Till Age, creeping over. Now finds that her lover Still craving Red Roses, Has sped to another. Then sing it, and ring it. The Song, as ye bring it, From flower and bower. And green mountain top. '* Make most of the winning! If loving be sinning, How barren the shuttle Must run in Life's spinning! " Make most of the singing. For Time is a-winging And soon will old Autumn Sere leaves be a-bringing.'' [58] SONGS OF LIGHT Then sing, sing along, How can Love do wrong, When Life's in the making. And Love's in the song! THE REVELERS In the heyday of pleasure The noonday of life, Do not linger nor tarry — Go marry, go marry, And take thee a wife. The dreams thou art chasing All soon will be done; Soon the flower will sever The seed, then forever Thy joys will be run. The crowds that are passing. The Sage and the Fool, The Cap and the Bells, The laughter, the knells, Soon all is forgotten. Our sorrows, our pleasures, Our joys or our tears. Like the mist shall be lost, The count and the cost, Down the flight of the years. [59] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Then let us be merry And dance with the throng; Not caring, not knowing Where all we are going, Or the strain of the song. The Holy, the Scoffer, The Wise and the Clown, Must at last in one wine Find the same anodyne To drink the years down. Wild Revelers, Revelers, Heed not Life's mockery — Be merry, be merry. And press the red berry To the sound of the Sea! A SONG FOR THE NAVY We are the Pride of Freedom, Ours the great heritage! The fruits of tears of a thousand years, The envy of our age! Yet as we leave our home, our town. Our land beloved, with hearts on high, Oh, let us not each one forget The duty that our God hath set! But with a contrite heart go down, [60] 1 SONGS OF LIGHT To cry, lads, To die, lads, For Freedom, for Freedom, Glory and Godhead one! We are the Lights of Freedom, Freedom^s imperious weal; As we ride the tides with our awful hides Of steel that cannot feel! When Faith shall call her Men to die, We'll nail the glorious flag on high ; Fearing naught but what brave men fear Who go out with Death on the falling year; As we peer through the smoke to our northern sky, To cry, lads. To die, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, One Victory, one Death! We are the strength of Freedom, The bulwark of her fame, We are the pride of her limitless tide, Her fortitude, her fame! More wide, more great than ever Rome, We'll fling the burning symbols high! And fearing but the Invisible Hand That guides our hearts, our faith, our land; With the blood of the years we will cleave the foam. And cry, lads. And die, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, For nation and for God! [6i] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS We are the hope of Freedom; Ours is the destined name; We are the lords of the hideous hordes That sweep the seas with their furious flame, Lunging, plunging, groping, sighing, Over the deeps as we ever roam. Like a great live thing that heaves and groans Feeding away on the fiery stones! Fighting away for the dear ones home — Dying, lads. Crying, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, For Liberty, and Light! We are the blood of Freedom, We are the sweat and bone, We are the seed of Freedom's need. Who utter never a groan For the blood of that faith we consecrate. For the hopes of the heart we crucify! Fearing naught but what brave men feel Who go down to the seas in things of steel; Their hope with God, their Souls with fate; Crying, lads. Dying, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, One Union and one State! We are the Men of Freedom, Yet let us not forget. Ours is the Sign of a shadowy Line, [62] SONGS OF LIGHT The seal by glory set! Unguarded fame at most is brief; New men arise, new symbols flying! So let us but will to new alien hordes, The keener steel, the mightier swords, And to new years new laurels bequeath! Crying, lads, Dying, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, For Glory and for God I We are the strain of the Saxon, The glory of our land ! Within our blood ten thousand stood. Ten thousand more at hand. When our race went forth to win or die. On perilous seas in the years gone by. We are the breed of a fearful strain. And the Dead to our Song shall uprise again. When the furious streams of our fires fly! When we cry, lads. When we die, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, For Victory or Death! We are the pride of Freedom, Ours the great heritage! The fruits of tears of a thousand years. The envy of our age! Yet as we leave our home, our town. Our land beloved, with hearts on vhigh, [63] ii (^ LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Oh, let us not each one forget The duty that our God hath set! But with a contrite heart go down, To cry, lads. To die, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, Glory and Godhead, one. Chorus : Yes, when all things shall be forgot. In the terrible crash of the enemies' shot. As we see them go under, With curses and thunder. From the mouths of our iron that cannot feel ; When that Myriad Throng Shall uprise to our song. From the souls of our Dead that have passed along; How well fight, lads. Through the Night, lads. To the crunch of the steel. And the whirl of the wheel! As the sparks upfly to the sky, lads. For Freedom, for Freedom, For Glory and for God ! [64] SONGS OF LIGHT THE CALL OF THE WILD Oh, I feel it and I hear it — the cry of the West Like a fire in my veins, like a battle in my breast; The Call of the Wild ! Let us on, for it is late, To those mountains and those shores where the great tides wait. Let us on, let us on, over mountains, over wood, For I feel it in my pulse and I feel it in my blood ; Where it throbs, where it sobs, where it trembles to be free ; As the clouds within a tempest, as the waves upon the sea. Where it throbs, where it sobs, " You are one, you're the same. You, the echo of the Wild, that was lost to our name, In the changing of the Years, yet of Nature you're the child ; Then back but for a little time, back to the Wild ! " Back but for a little time, back to the soil. Cast away your vain things, come away from toil ! Hear the Forest Voices, calling from the light; " Welcome back, my little one, welcome home to-night. [65] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS '^ Eons seem a day to us — you it is that change; You have quite forgotten us, sad and so strange ! Welcome to our hills again, welcome to our streams, Let us, for this one night, dream old dreams. " Dance us from the great World, sing our happy song; Primal things are true things, join our circling throng, Round and round forever, drinking freer birth. We it is that never change, Children of the Earth ! " Oh, I feel it, I hear it — the Call of the Plains, Like a burning in my breast, like a fire in my veins; *^ Primal Love is true Love, free the welling flood ! " It^s the cry of the Race — the battle of the blood ! A SUMMER'S PHANTASY Beauty walked forth upon the moonlight sea, And when the stars arose. Sprinkled with myrrh, and rose The waning shafts of daylight's western streams, Yet not alone she went to free Music from Love's eternity. But other forms increasing Night still brought. As each within their mist The dreamer's eyelids kist, To vanish like a phantasy of light. Till Fancy from her rainbows caught Color, for each new imaged thought. [66] SONGS OF LIGHT Oh, Music, Motion, Light and Ye who still The mysteries of Night With soft enduring light, Bright as the heavenly clouds that round us fall, ij And Thou, fair Evening, soothly fill Our fancy with thine ardent quill. And let no ruder noise our ears assail Than quiet forest eaves. Low dripping on the leaves Of flowers mingling in their still caress; Or some far drifting summer sail To sound of soft-voiced Nightingale. Come, all ye Spirits from the mountain streams. With cymbals softly sound The star-encompassed ground. Till Beauty's dream inwoven with the stars Arises from the moon's bright beams In aureoles of encircling dreams. Then Fauns and Satyrs from their once green shore With shaggy cloven feet To music softly sweet Shall herald Silenus, tippling on his ass; And Bacchus, Bacchus evermore Gathering at hand his merry store. While well plumped children clap their rosy hands, Riding the sluggish beasts. Undaunted, to the feasts [67] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Which wait upon Diana's rising car, Enwreathed with pearl and blushing bands Of coral, from far Indes lands. As goat-clad shepherds sitting on the rocks Urging on pipe and flutes Mirth, and that song that suits The rustic swains returning with their flocks, Shall join beneath the mystic moon Love, laughter, dance, and wild bassoon. Then will the seasons with their own portent — Spring and her quietness. Then Summer's gayer dress, And Autumn, wreathed with lush fulfilled desires, E'en Winter in his cerements, Be welcomed to the festal tents. First, with her sweet delusive dreams, shall Spring Forego our wintry birth With jollity and mirth. And wed us to elusive Pleasure's hopes; When tripping maidens in a ring Welcome and kiss each pretty thing. Then to the Summer must we pass our dream; Ah, may she gently heap Lightly upon our sleep Music that softer falls than falling rain ; That as we go all things may seem Ripe, for the soft Autumnal dream. [68] SONGS OF LIGHT And let red apples fall about our head, While Autumn's mellowness In bright expectant dress Welcomes the issue of her fruitful prime; And let pale dreams around us tread With rose leaves from the Summer's dead. Then to the Winter must we needs repair; And to his Melancholies Commend him to our follies, Reaped from the sorry harvest of the year; Yet not alone we'll greet him there, Amid the snows and the wintry air. But lastly let such phantasies of name, Such gossamers of thought As Hyacinthus wrought From Color, Music, Light and unheard sound. Unseen, commingling with our frame Pass, like imagined shafts of flame. A SONG TO BEAUTY Beauty, thine empire is supreme! No other blooms or blossoms would I own, But where are sown Thy lasting seeds, there would I dream Like one who in a raptured ecstasy [69] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Cools his deep passion by Love's endless stream, And on the sun-warmed grass, entranced alone. Strikes his gold lyre to the sounding sea. The wind which sweeps thy verdant hills And through thy trees luxuriant in their leaf, Bestirs that brief Sweet murmur, like to Summer rills. Gladdening their cresses as they glide along Through glooms of beryl leafiness, distills Her lyric strain till joy is past belief, And all thy woods glow with her deathless song. Yet here, alas! our lyres are dead! Those throngs that sang upon thy once famed shore Now are no more! Voiceless and mute, their glory long since shed. They come, midst withering leaves, unsought, alone, Like ghosts that knock all hopeless on our door; Till now, unheard, they fade, — now are they fled, Into the Hours upon the Midnight's moan. Oh, for some Orpheus to fling Music, awakening in Athenian song! Some harp among Earth's holy dead; that once more they might bring Song to our land. Dreams from our wintry tears! To bear thee garlands, flowers of loveliest Spring, And charm to pipes again that Phantom Throng Too oft unseen, in these our songless years! [70] PART II SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE 1 A SUPPLICATION Now be the hour of prayer, Lord God of hosts ; Oh, let us not Our vows, our heritage recant! But kneeling, with a heart devoid of boasts, Receive us. Lord, thine humbled supplicants; Lest virtue be forgot. Let not our courage fail, now Night has spun The wavering light; But let us on, nor count the cost; Awaiting in our faith the rising sun! Vouchsafe us this. Great Lord, or all is lost, Be with us in our night! Now that the melancholy hours attend Our common land. To all our hills and quiet streams, In primal things thine invocation send; That we may live within our Sires' dreams; Lest envy guide our hand. Let not traditions that have fed our line, The laws that made Us what we were and what we are. Pass with the dusky throngs of night's decline; But let their vows be our one Pilot Star; We perish should they fade! [73] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Let Right and Virtue be our attitude ; Let us but stand In rustic strength, in valor free ; In peace of commerce first ; in battle rude ; • Let Art progress, yet let not luxury be A canker to our land. Let us incline in charity to all; Communing, Lord, With contrite hearts; but should we feel Unrighteous battle on our country fall. Oh, let us then, with souls of primal steel Resent the evil horde! Hear us, now night makes one of land and sea. Invoke Thy rod To light us on midst glooms and fears. Where wait the great Invisible To Be, Upon the margin of the endless years; Hear us, O Thou our God ! Ours be the land of fructifying fruits! The virile tree From whose green boughs no barren flower Shall wreathe the idle songs of Lydian flutes; But Justice our great God, and Nature our Nativity. Lend us the strength of all that shadowy line, The hardier breed. Which first did people these our fields [74] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE From that bold stock which cherished no vain sign ; That long our lands may flourish in their yields Of fruitful seed. Let not our aims decline as years revolve, Nor avarice A menace to our liberty; Lest we like Rome shall of our weal dissolve ! But let first things our benediction be, And Strength our sacrifice! Though we are blind and know not what we are. Nor of our cast; Nor what dark storms await our coming race; This, this we know, we are some rising star! Some destined light awaits our final place! Night can not ever last. Then lead us on through Hopes and Fears, From plain and height; That we at last may leave the Trail of Dust, To mount the summit of perpetual years! Grant us but this. Great King, Thou whom we trust. Our Saviour, Lord of Light! [75] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS THE ULTIMATE I bore a Cross through years of pain, Silently, invisibly! One Winter's night from out the rain. Seawards a Voice spake unto me. Then silently, invisibly, The Stars gave up their beams; And all the Shadows met the Sea, And all the Sea her Dreams. I heard a Voice upon a height, Silently, invisibly, '' I gave Ye Day, why would Ye Nighj " ! Yet all the crowds went laughing by. Till a Great Wind began to stir, Silently, invisibly. And all the lands that ever were Gave up their dead, and the wide sea. THE VAST LOVE My dream outswept its earthly sphere. To those invisible fires. Where Angels, hearkening to no tear. Swept the celestial lyres. [76] ■^^ SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Yet was there one (and he was high) Of all God's heavenly lot, Who sang to that empyrean sky Through tears forgotten not. For he did sing of the Great Plan, And of Death's chastening rod; And of Its pain to mortal man, And the vast love of God. Who through those Worlds that ever roll From plain to higher plain. Would still the sufferings of the Soul, Were pain not worth the pain. And as he sang, far up among The Stars, all resolute, I heard above his trembling song The sobbing of a lute. Yet not alone I knew his tears From his gold lute were swept! I heard, below Earth's vaster fears I heard — and knew God wept! [77] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS TIME, NOT OF MAN Have I been dead a thousand years! It seems but as a one night's dream ! " A million years would no more seen ' Mutter the Winds, and onward stream. (And all about the Waters cry: ** It is not long since Death went by/' *' A thousand years," the Waves reply.) Have I been dead a thousand years! It was but now two Lovers came To join as one in Love's sweet name; I wonder, is it still the same! (O tell me is there yet a dearth Of pain and love — or endless birth ! Is it yet well with the dear Earth?) Have I been dead a thousand years! Again afar the Evening Bell; Again I hear those Lovers tell That of the Earth, yes, all is well ! (If love on earth be not forgot A Day, a Year, it matters not ; At the vast end who cares one jot.) [78] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE What matters then those thousand years! Now Love on Earth be still the same ; And Earthly Love be of that flame That holds to Earth, no earthly name! (" Nothing! " says Wind, whose ways are fleet; " Nothing! '' those forms of night repeat, And hurry on with phantom feet.) And down the line I hear where ran The Voice of Things since Time began: ^"^ Years J measured years, are but of Man; Yet Man is not of Time nor Years I ^^ (" And yet the span seems long," one sings; ." Hush, why the Rose,'' cries Summer, " brings Her beauty from a million Springs, It matters not, a thousand years! ") Now all God's things from Land and Deep Thus speak, with Christ my Soul I'll keep. And turn again to wait, — and sleep. NIGHT WILL SOON BE HERE Night will soon be here. Love, No more weep; What is there to fear. Love, — Let us sleep ! [79] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Though the Earth forget us, What care we; Newer light will let us Clearer see. Nothing more to fear, Love, Fear no more! They will soon be here, Love, At thy door. Death and Love are talking In the Night; Hush! I hear them walking Towards the light. Open wide and gladly. Let them in; Have we not more sadly Lived within! Some day they will take us Far away! One day they may wake us — Who shall say? Yet will Soul cease growing, All be past, When beyond the knowing We are cast! [80] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE To the Soul, ascending In God's light, Death is not an ending But a night. Nor this Life to any But a door; Who shall say the many. Many more! Seems that we have met. Love, In old years; Dreams so soon forget, Love, Of their tears. Often when weVe walked here, By this shore. Seems as if we'd talked here. Years before. Whispered to you, dreaming. Love's dear ways; Was it all a seeming, Those dim days! Days, when no dark showers Hid the Sun; Days when all was ours, Life begun. [8i3 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Till Years came and looked in! Then we knew, That within our garden Others grew. Others than those flowers We did deem, Fed but in the hours Of Love's dream. Yet for that our meeting. Later grief Fades — time is so fleeting. Night so brief. No more let us wait, Love, Daylight done, Light is growing late. Love, Let us on. Hark ! What voice is wakening In the skies. What new winds, forsakening Earth, arise! Through the Nightfall muttering Like a grief, On the breezes fluttering Leaf to leaf. [82] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Heed not of the crying, Only give! Living, we are dying, Dying, live! Come, perhaps they need us Past the Bars; Love like ours shall lead us Through the Stars. Surely the high altar Of the Soul We shall gain, nor falter Paying toll. Let us on then bringing Wreaths of tears; Hush! I hear a singing Dovi^n the years. Here the Angels rending Paeons of song; Yet, dear, some are bending Earthwards, long. Some there yet are keeping Vigils vain. For a heart still weeping Earthly pain. [83] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Yet so great our love is That our dream, Which with God above is Shall redeem. Surely, then, they'll call us, There to be One with that vast Chorus Thee, and Me! Night will soon be here, Love, No more weep; Nothing more to fear. Love — Let us sleep! MORTALITY I dreamed that I did He beside A thing of Earth, and it had died. Along the sands the wild seas cried. I knew that it was noon, and yet High in the night the stars were set! O God to live, and yet forget! To dream, to curse, to live, to cry For Phantoms that have long passed by- Let me forget, or let me die! [84] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Let me not hear the bells of mirth ; Here where I long for a newer birth, Here where I wait for the bosomed earth. " But let me know that all my fears," Love cries, " like mist and long wept tears, Shall fade as loom the new born years." And then again with her I dreamed! Before a muteless sea I seemed, That vague and boundless onward streamed. And sadly, as when shadows rise, And bolder hope of daylight dies, I bent in tears to kiss her eyes. I strove to feel the mass of hair. And the white rose that I placed there; Nothing — the rain all bleak and bare ! I strove to hear that song which was The first faint strain that love did pass ; — Only the night wind through the grass! I strove to feel where love had let Warm lips now wan their signet set; Only the sea-shells cold and wet! Still yet I strove to hear some song; '' Perhaps," Hope said, ** she sings among God's Choiristers " — I waited long! [85] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS I waited for some sign again, I waited till once more the rain Beat in my face with bitter pain. And all I felt — the utter night ; And all I saw — a realmless height ; And all I heard — waves breaking white. Thus through the night I hearkening sat, The wind-pierced reeds my humble mat; Only the lone wind — only that ! Only the sea mist sweeping by. Only the far waves' cheerless cry; Only the things that cannot die! Till now they swept far out to sea; And each small star all fearfully Passed to the things which are to be. Eastward I saw the Morning rise, I saw her beams within the skies; Yet not her light within my eyes. I felt again the morning shower Revive the roses' priceless dower; Yet not for me one small bright flower. Not, not for me or for that throng The Dead in Heart, that passed along; The Living Dead ten thousand strong. [86] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE And then I heard a murmuring wide, A wail, an ebbing chant that died, Upon the shores, along the tide: " O God, may we then never see Beyond the Waters — Death but free The veil of life-drawn mystery! "Hope, idle hope, ah, what is it! A Lorelei the Dead admit. When life is gone and candles lit. " Our Love is gone into the night; Should it return, O God, it might Come with a strange unknown light! "What is a Hope tomorrow born! The Form we loved, that Form is gone. Then lure us not with Songs of Dawn. " Let others hope and drink their fill. What if there be a meeting, will The lips we knew be aught but still ? " Let Time and Heavenly Will transform The face, the arms, the breasts once warm, Think you that zve shall know the form! " Sweet Earthly Dream, more sweet for sin, To think that Love may never win Again thy mouth, and enter in! [87] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS '' Spring comes again in new attire, The leaf does change to brighter fire, Yet O the love, the old desire! " Gone is the voice, gone words and all. And through our hearts the wild winds call, And round our dreams the dead leaves fall. " Here where we ever searching, stand, A stranger to the Inner Band, Here by this w^ave worn shadow-land. *^ Here where we plead, entreat, implore. Yet look and look forevermore Out from the same receding shore. " Unto the Edge — to vainly hope. Into the dark — to blindly grope. Into the mist's enduring slope. " Only to feel that thing that is — Death — and the depth of the abyss, O God, the hopelessness of this! " THE HOUSE OF SIN I came unto a house whose door Was open wide to Walking Sin; I met the Devil there within. Laughing, he pointed, — nothing more. [88] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Up from the soul of the blinding mass, Up from the heart of the City's dead, Singly she came to break the bread Of empty joy, to drain the glass. I called her by her once sweet name, She heeded not, but entered in. Then shrilly leapt the violin, Till all the house lit up with flame. A thousand souls, a thousand lights, Fettered as one with brazen bands; The Devil he smiled and rubbed his hands; " These are indeed most joyous nights." This is indeed a fruitful year. When Priest and Devil still walk abroad. Each with an eye to the richest horde! Chastity feigning the contrite tear. Will nobody come to seek the Child, Nobody seem to care save Him; Without the lights grow small and dim. Within a revelry more wild. As through the half-drawn shutters fly Convulsive shadows round on round; The wine is drunk, the dregs are found. The Devil he smiles — I wonder why! [89] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS The sun is high, the moving mass Of painted fashion smiles and bows; Vain hypocrites whose haughty brows Conceal but hearts of withered grass. Up through the streets they stately move, To liveries of brass and gold; A little bird could haply hold More than they know of selfless love. For public charities behold How open is their cherished purse; In high esteem the Churches nurse Such patrons, though their faith be sold. They buy their crowns for cash, receive Forgiveness with a cushioned seat. Nor look for Christ in those they meet Whose outward gold has chanced to rust. Nor here within this stricken thing, That passes by, so young, so fair; For she has sinned and so must bear The curses which mock virtue bring. For she has erred in outward sin! (No sin they deem if one's discreet) And now must ever through the street Pass, for the doors are locked within. [90] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Bending her steps where others trod, She wanders onward and is gone; Unnoticed plies her way alone, Seeming unloved by man or God. Who was it threw the loaded dice! Will nobody lend a lifting hand! The name rings false, ^' A Christian Land," Whose altars claim such sacrifice! A voice cries out: "The play is false! " Fashion replies: " 'Tis time to dine!" Again the lights, again the wine, Again the devil and his waltz. Will nobody lend a lifting word! What is below the tinsel there! Who knows a heart how sore and bare! God knows — and he alone has heard. And every door is locked without, As every door is barred within! For less forgiving holds God sin In those who shout their creeds about. The stars are high. By all forsook, A hopeless shape counts not the cost, But passes out — a Soul is lost. Nor comes from heaven one word, one look. [91] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS \\ Thus still they go, and still they ply Past Churches barred with narrow creeds, And fatted priests who tell their beads — The Devil he laughs, I wonder why! Oh you who fear sometime to soil Your hands by touching chasteless sin, Think you, you hold not worse within Than this poor child of loveless toil. Think you, the Churches or the part You pay to heaven with your ill gold, Is worth one Cast in God's own mould! Where is the Christ within your heart? EARTHhFREE Now falls the dusk from tree to tree, Now comes the Evening unto me. Now fails the twilight, now the sea. Now steals the starlight over me. Now fades the casement, now the lea. Now melt the shadows into me. Now is it night. Now all is free. Even to God — to even me ! [92] I SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE DREAM-SPIRITS Spirits of the shadow, strew Over her lightly, Moonbeams of the lightest hue, Ever so brightly. Calm as waters stilled at night. Waft her on thy wings of light; Over clouds that are flying, On lights that are lying. Dying, dying. Softly, Spirits, wake her not. Light be thy keeping; Time and Grief soon are forgot — Peacefully sleeping! Gently, Shadows, shade her eyes; Come, sweet Spirits, let us rise By lights that are streaming. With stars that are gleaming. Dreaming, dreaming. Out of Chaos her Soul is thrown. Hither she knows not; Out of her breath our dreams arc blown. Whither she knows not; [93] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Ever onward sped along With each new phantastic throng, On winds that are blowing Mute, and yet knowing — Flowing, flowing. Weep no more, then weep no more. Sleep can but save her! Sorrow holds not in her store More than she gave her! What is Life when Life is grief! When Death's the Friend and Life's the thief - Poor Life, that can borrow But this from the morrow — Sorrow, sorrow. THE WORKER Laboring, he toils until the day is done; Still, still he sees the same incessant stream; The bough will blossom, fruit, and then — 'tis gone. And life long past, but one vague lingering dream. HYMN TO EVENING High in the Clouds Brightly the Evening reposes; Glorious Crowds Strew her with aureate roses! [94] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Cast to her bowers, Seraphims, Spirits of Heaven! Star-gathered flowers, Borne by the Winds of Even. Wild are the songs, Sweet is the sound of the singing; Bright are the throngs, Glad IS the time of the bringing. Soft as the light That over the Evening hovers; Milder the white Necks of the Clouds that bend over. Strewing her eyes With dews from the gossamer showers; Feeding her sighs With tears from the dreams of the hours. Thou of the Night, Bright is thy beauty ascending; Yet brighter the light — The Strains of thy Songs never ending! 1 faint, I fail, I die at the edge of the Knowing, I knock at thy Pale, Yet I know not what Winds there are blowing! [95] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS The Night is upon me, I faint, I fall by the River! Never more shun me, But leave me forever, fornever! Spirit of Night Upbear me in flames and in fires, Vision most bright. Let me pass to the songs of thy lyres. Down the Great Stream My bark from the shore is far driven; Oh, linger, thou Dream, Till the veil of thy beauty is riven. I hear the call — I hear the call, and fear it! Sustain me — I fall. Thou bright, thou glorious Spirit! SUNSET Full beautiful that Summer's night; The Lover's song all flung with flowers; And over all the moon full white — Wilt thou forget those happy hours? [96] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE The music of the Nightingale; The Dusk and all her Paramours; The lazy tides, the little sail; Canst thou forget those happy hours? When but upon the rose-fed air I heard thy song dissolve in showers And how we met and lingered there; Wilt thou forget those happy hours? Wilt thou forget how life then seemed All shafts of flame and sunlight towers! Till at the Daybreak we but deemed All ours, in those. Earth's earliest hours. Yet would'st thou change though tears have turned To stain of fires of deeper power, That Dawn, for Day, now redder burned, In this, Love's last, yet ripest hour! AT THE EVENTIDE Long fields of barley, ripe with yellowing grain, Stained with red poppies red as blood is red. Midst Summer's lush fulfillment, where has lain Last Autumn's leaves, their beauty long since fled; And low faint mists where linger Memory's Dead Ah, Life how sweet it is When days have come to this! [97] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS And golden trees hung full with turning seed, Where lovers, lingering in the sinking sun. Stain lips more red on fruits that redder bleed For newer years — those years that love hath won, Though in the fruit, seeming, hath Death begun; Ah, Life how sweet it is When days have come to this! And one wide open sea, indefinite! And fading song and ships slow gliding out; And gathering mists, and slow down drooping light; As sinks the City's cry, the tumult's shout! And now the Night and silence all about! Ah, Life how sweet it is When days have come to this ! And two vague Rivers joining in one flood; The death of one which is the other's breath ; And from them both the same resistless blood; Reanimate, the same undying death! And far faint immemorial winds that saith: Ah, Life full sweet it is Now days have come to this! And wide still spaces of unchanging night; Tall Cypress, dark, waveless by silent streams; And lilies cold and white, oh, strangely white ! And Nightingales, where some old castle gleams Pale to the moon, the time of endless dreams; Ah, Life how sweet it is When days have come to this! [98] J SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE NOVEMBER And the soughing winds and the beating rain Was all that he heard in the outer night! All that he heard was the same refrain, The soughing winds and the beating rain! And he thought of those who long had lain Deep in that sleep where there is no light, But the soughing winds and the beating rain Was all that he heard in the outer night. A PRAYER AT THE END OF THINGS Lord of the Universal Throng, Soul of the every sphere. Hear, like the winds, my crying song; God of my Being, hear! I fear for what I am, the dust Of Night is heavy on my lips; Yet now if ever must I trust, Now that the daylight slips. This morning was I strong with hope ; Tonight I fail with trembling fear; I feel the shadows towards me slope, I feel the darkness near, [99] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Before the waning light I kneel, I cannot see now very far; Misgiving comes with firmer heel To try my prison bar. The clearest stars of light depart, I hear the far encroaching sea. Concede, Lord, courage to my heart, That I may follow thee. Am I the whole or but a link. To be again or not to be! Trembling I stand upon the brink; Lord God, be one with me. Whatever holds the Stars, resigned Unto the Night, let me be now. See how my cheeks with tears are lined, And dew is on my brow. O God, have mercy on my plight ; See how my lips grow thin with cold ; Have I not suffered much tonight? Grant me the faith of old! Grant me a word. I will not ask The why and whence each wind is blown; For I am weary now, the mask. Mortality, weighs down. [lOO] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Tonight somehow my little bark Seems driven far from every shore; Call me and lead me through the dark; Lead, and I ask no more. Last night my faith said unto me: ** I knocked, and He did hear me not, And yet I knew^ Him once; has he My utter self forgot?" And then unto the hills I went, Unto Thy hills with lightless eyes, And many hours of anguish spent, Questioning, beneath the skies. I saw the earthly pain of Soul, That misty line of Life earth-chained; "And is it all but for Death's toll," I cried, ** Is nothing gained?" I heard the timeless Worlds that move, I saw the endless chain of Man, I felt the sacrifice, the love. Boundless since time began. And then I knew that there must be Somewhere a Maker's hand to cast, I looked and nothing saw but Thee, Infinite, spaceless, vast! [lOl] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Now am I ready, Lord, sustain My every hope through failing power; I question not the loss or gain, Enough unto the hour. My faith unto thine Hand is set; Mine be the heart resigned to fate. Lord God of All, maintain me yet; Lead on, Lead on! I wait. THE WAIF ^Why was this child of man Struck from the list? Is he not missed; Where is his guardian? Has he no Christ? Out in the Christmas night. One of God^s own. Deserted, alone; Pity his lonely plight, Turn not to stone! [102] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Robbed of all small delights, See how he stands there, Out in the Wintry air, Under the City's lights, Under the glare. Lost in the hurrying throng, Nothing to spend, Nothing to lend; Oh, how the Child must long. Sigh for a friend. How can he feign to sing! No one to cry to. No one to sigh to. No little cheerful thing. Nothing that's true. Only the mild stars shine Cold in the sky. So far and so high; Only the countless line. Passing him by. Only the bells of night. Swelling their song Past the great throng; Each with their joys bedight. Rushing along. [103] .^^ LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Up through the crowded street, See how they shiver! Did you see ever Such a mad rush of feet, Pitying never! Clothed in Life's banities, See how they ride! Naught by their side. But the cold vanities, Riches, and Pride. Oh, what a travesty, Nothing to fear, Nothing too dear. Yet for kind charity, Not even one tear! With just a grand look at him, Sitting alone. White on the stone — Poor little waif, so slim. Ashes, and bone! Just a small glance as they Enter God's place; One of a race. Who through their riches may Sin in full grace. [104] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Just a down look as they Enter within, To soft violin; There where their riches may Cleanse them of sin. Out of the churches^ door See how they come; Mild eyed are some, Yet not a smile for poor Wretches who roam. Haughty in power, free, Fatted and sleek, Purpled in sheek, Yet not a thought for the Meek or the weak. Yet why should they think of him, But one of God's all. What though he fall! To sounds of wild seraphim, Still and so small! Then sing out most merrily! Cheeks that are thin Hungry with sin. Away from their revelry Dance enter in! [105] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Dance, let them crown thee now; Life is most jolly; Mistletoe, Holly, Let them but deck thy brow; Life's but a folly! Toss high the Lydian Wine; Here's to their throng Passing along. Singing, though Day decline; Here's to the Song! Here's to it merrily ! Cheeks that are thin. Pain that is sin. Away from their revelry — Mirth, enter in! What though the low winds moan Up from Night's streams; There where he seems Part of the Winter's own, There where he dreams. There where he lingers still, One of God's known. Deserted, alone! Poor little Waif, so ill. Ashes and bone. [io6] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE There where the rattling sleet, Whirling, forlorn, Curling upborne; Rushing with phantom feet — Comes and is gone! Lost to the bitter snows, Past the great crowd. White as a shroud. See how the whirlwind goes, Melts like a cloud. Back to the frozen sods. Shrouded in white, Failed of the Light! Only a soul of God's, Lost to the night! Why was this child of man Struck from the list? Is he not missed? Where is his guardian? Had he no Christ? [107] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS BRIEF IS THE NIGHT This is thine hour, O Soul! Into the heart of the whole, — Out from the helmless Into the realmless Shadows unroll. Now are the stars of white light, Bright in their ultimate height. Then courage, O Breath, Though the journey be Death — Short is the Night! LOVE LIVES ANEW And now the full sad hour! Down melting hills Go forth day's Acolytes in dusky throngs; As Eve, with ever tender finger, stills The various sounds of Daylight's harsher songs. The going forth, the passing of the prime, The holy hour when Nature stays her breath; The fading, the Recessional of Time, The universal change of Life and Death! [io8] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE And now the Dreams, the Hour! of Light, A hymn of Earth's last sacrifices sing; And now upon the altar of the night, The Stars! bright symbols of the offering. As far below, among the rising lights. The Vesper tells the time of common prayer, Midst ruddy youth, and those of many nights, And those forgotten and long sleeping there. Who once on earth did breathe the same sweet air. And loved as mad upon the Summer's prime! With eyes as bright and cheeks as youthly fair; Yet what avails them now the June's full time! What songs and tender passion long forgot May not have flamed more brightly their life-loom! Through these same fields what strain of love may not Have urged the reddest rose to redder bloom! In that forgotten spot what have you there. What flame of life, unheeded, flickering died; What sad love legends may perhaps not share Those two green graves, long mouldering side by side! » Ah! Yes, I see them pass the gathering shade. The same June moon, the same full golden glow; As down the years with other hosts they fade. Two lovers that did love — long, long ago. [109] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS A Youth in prime of sinewy beauty, he Oft for the primal earth would shun the crowds; While she a child of nature, wild and free As wind-borne skylarks mounting to the clouds. How many times these hedgerows growing here Closed round them in the warmth of that far June, Till April seemed but in perpetual year! But this, like all dreams, past — too soon, too soon. For it is told — that venerable man That goes with age across green yonder lawn Did hear it from his sires — how there ran From foreign lands the cry for strength and brawn. And hoVv one evening, when the first small stars Urged the home shepherds by the common lane; He left the rustic life for alien wars; She watching by the roadside, but in vain. Till winters passed and summers came, and she Full barren in her soul, like something wild Died, with the harvest^s song. Look! yonder tree Seems greener for the death of this rude child. And as from spring to spring it spread its leaves In lovelier blossoms, here beneath these boughs Lovers would come to moan their twilight hours. And May-Queens in the May to deck their brows. [no] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE And oft at night, they say (but let that pass, Such mystic shadows throws the midnight moon) Beneath its leaves a figure on the grass Sat weeping and low singing a strange tune. Until at last, the years were many, yet not many, Dying they brought him home across the sea; Here by these leaves they laid him down — nor any Cold marbles rave, but this full sheltering tree. But why speak of these things ! Springs bloom again ; A newer race holds legends of their own. Why think of them? What if their roses stain By desert winds into old seas were blown? Who cares for old dreams now? Yet I could tell — But let that pass; enough our glorious sun. That brightens this our day; the Vesper Bell Is well enough for those whose work is done. SHADOWS Far out, what time the last lights dip, Above the mists I saw a ship; Yet, when I looked again to sea. Nothing but dim eternity. [Ill] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Above the mists, far up above, I saw the brow of my true Love! I looked again, yet O Despair! Only the cold stars lingered there. O Ship, I wonder to what shore Your sails were set, what songs you bore ! Or were you destined but to free Souls to a wider mystery! O Thou who from the clouds above, Lured me with hopes of nearer Love, Oh, tell me, shall there never be Freedom from Life's uncertainty? TWILIGHT Come, bind my brows with amber leaves. And let there be no sad lament, When at the last the Winter wreathes Her cerement Of purple mists, that curl and close Over the dreams the twilight throws Into that void which no man knows; That night whence all are sent. [112] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE For I have heard a wild thing call, Far in the forest deep and still; And I have seen the last leaf fall By the wintry rill; Now all my pipes are stopped with dust, Now all my dreams, that I did trust. Are changed like leaves to wintry rust That hang the russet hill. Let others chase the airy dreams. Those phantoms that their follies lend. By summer seas or bitter streams; For me O land Those melancholy waters strange. Where clouds of earth no more may range, Beneath a calm that cannot change, A peace that cannot end. THE SEA CHANGE The finger of the night is on her brow, And the white sea mist through her hair is spun; She sleeps, ah ! may she sleep as she is now Unbidden to the light of each new sun. Now hers the filmy pearls, the wave-green skies. And those far seas, that sea which round her keeps A holy place for glooms and mysteries — That sea beyond all seas wherein she sleeps. [113] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS That sea wherein we image our wished dreams; Dreams melting down to one beyond the brink; And who shall say it is not as we deem, And nearer, yes, and nearer, than we think. Come, ye sea phantoms! Round her form arrange That mist of Mysteries that no eye may see; She sleeps! So may she sleep through that sea change, That changes time to time's eternity. Now hers the scene of spaceless hours, of halls. Dark halls that end not through the trembling deeps; Forget, forget, the day is late, night falls; Yet what is night, to her, — to her who sleeps? Who sleeps! O Magic Word transforming all; All, all we know or feel, thy mysteries Draw round, till Dawn again some day may call From some far land, beyond unknown seas. THE DIFFERENCE If I could smile as others smile, Nor question of the final sum ; If I could quite forget awhile. And pass the time to pipe and drum; Then would I be from Reverie free. And that, God knows, I would not be. [114] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Yet should I weep, should I but weep When all the heavens teem with rain; When once more to Earth's holy keep Dust to the dust is brought again, Then would this shell of utter earth, This mask, forego its right, rebirth. Nay, rather will I weep, when they With trivial flowers bind their head ; And smile at those whose finite way Thinks Summer past is Summer dead! Hearing the winds whose words are His: Life that it past, is Life that IS! DREAMS OF ETERNAL YOUTH Dreams of Eternal Youth, in whose sweet name, Echoed the woodlands when the Dryads came. Laughing, with rose-blown boughs and wreaths of gold. To lead the Morning from Night's loveless hold; Last night I dreamed of thee, and, dreaming, seemed To hold a bowl, whose waters ever teemed With wrestling phantoms, mirrored from above; Pleasure and Grief, Sorrows, and new-fledged Love, Mingling themselves in near community. Brightly they glistened, like an aspen tree Trembling within the sun her tenderest leaves; [IIS] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Or when, on still deep waters, Beauty heaves To silver ripples her more silvery breath, That dies in shadows fairer than fair death. Breathing the faintest words that faintest sigh: ** Waters may flow, the Font yet ever dry! I am the Spirit of the Seas and Sky! I am the Shadow of those forms that fly Earth's changing lights — that live, yet never die." Then all my phantoms of the shadowy light Passed from my touch in ever speeding flight. The more I sought, the faster did they fade Into that nothingness whence all is made, Till now, the lightness of the day was done, And now my Fancies faded one by one; And I alone, where falls the sunless streams. Looked from the brink upon the old grey years. All heaped with dust, where once my love had fed; As in my hands I held the Bowl of Tears; Only a Bowl of Tears, for Hope had fled. Long since, far down the mists, to dream of old dead ii dreams. HOLD FAST, O SOUL tlold fast, my Soul, unto the things that are; Into Night's arms I pass. Be strong, O hope! Now down the hills seawards the shadows slope. Now to the dusk glides the first Evening Star. [ii6] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Now silhouetted stands the distant pine. Earth's murmuring ease — so cease Earth's words to me. Now fearful pass strange ships far out at sea, But fearful not the fears that once were mine! Yet ask I not whereto my Spirit glides. 'Tis night. Enough to let my dreams outflow Unto the Earth, knowing where'er they go, Through change and change, there the Vast All abides. AGE Rain, rain, only the dripping of the rain. Always the rain, the wind, the same refrain ! There, where the faithless embers light his brow With scarce a ripple of their dying stain. Rain, rain, only the rain! From town and height The lamps are streaming, yet there is no light! And now he chides the lifeless coals, and now Again the shadows, rain and hopeless night! CHILDREN OF THE SUN Though all things be a-passing. To the Years that unroll; And the best is at most [117] X LIGHTS AND SHADOWS But a grain of the whole, Yet the leaves of our labors are moulding Souls, that on follow each Soul. Though the Harvest may wither, And Death be the thief ; Yet the fruit it shall turn to More glorious leaf! I know, for IVe spoken God's waters — The Winter of Nightfall is brief! Strange hour of Twilight, When the dreams of the soul Over meadows and mountains With vast waters outroU, From the scenes of our tangible labors. From the heart of the definite whole ! How oft have I felt thee! Whose sorrowing brings, Like the mist to still waters Those stiller small wings That touch but the ghost of the shadow - The shadow that memory flings. Time was when the brightest, The fairest of skies. From the sun-divorced mountains [ii8] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE And meadows would rise, Through the Nights of the Nightfall ensuing, Unfettered and keen to the eyes. Time was when the fruitage That falls from the tree, When the vari-hued Autumn Calls out to the sea That is wild upon desolate mountains, Was a glory unbounded and free! But now the gold asters And flowers whose hue From the once open heavens Seemed born of that blue. Awaken no longer that sunshine In darkness, whose sunshine burns true. And the yellow leaf branches. All burnished and bold. Which the days of October In bondage must hold, Till the Day calleth out from Night's daytime. No longer seem vestured in gold. But all ashen and sober Those leaves now appear; Though the gold of the harvest Has turned with the year. And I hear not the laughter of waters, But the falling of leaves that are sere. [119] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Yet we of the Sorrowful Children of Dust, Who despair of the dawn As all earthly things must, Which are cast by the edge of dark waters, Shall arise to more glorious trust. Though the fruit of our labors, The sorrow, the pain. Seem lost to the waters. They are born not in vain ; We the Seed of a Race that forever Return to more wonderful strain. We the Symbols predestined (Evolved from the Night) To return and return As we strive for the Light; Till it flames up the Dreams of the Ages, To the throne of the ultimate height. We the song before Sunrise, Unknowing, yet known. To the Stars and their Worlds; The strain that was throw^n From the lutes of the light-loving Seraphs When Night from the Sea was first blown. For I know; for IVe tasted Those waters of grief, [i2o] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Which turn in the night To the wine of belief; I have spoken God's h'mitless waters — The Winter of Nightfall is brief! A NOCTURNE Stay thou, calm light! Strange light that from the lips Of beauteous Evening dips To limn with vermeil clouds Day's Acolyte; Stay, stay, Nor haste away Until the songs of Even, Shall issue forth To lovelier worth The stars of gentler Heaven. Come thou, still sleep! Soft sleep, that softer closes Our eyelids than the roses When gentle winds their gentlest petals sweep; Stay, stay. Nor haste away Until that night be riven When to each isle Of happier smile More glorious song is given. [I2l] 1- LIGHTS AND SHADOWS THE LAST FLOWERS Fair loiterers of Summer how can ye linger here! The harvest moon hath fled, And Winter from her bed Already bends to Autumn's sumptuous bier. How can ye stay Another day, Or are ye some new comer; To tempt awhile In Beauty's guile, The wings of fitful Summer? How was it ye escaped the Autumn's share? So delicate a flower Surely the early plower Must scatter as sweet offerings to the air. Away, away. Nor let your stay Fall to the wintry weather ; But to the earth A richer birth Come let us seek together. Are ye but some mere flower of joy, or has The invisible all Some sign of Heaven let fall To stay awhile our footsteps as we pass? Ah! would that we [122] I! SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Could live with thee Through hours which end fornever! By greenwood trees And purple seas And suns that shine forever. But hark! A voice into the sunset breathes! Already through the trees The last Autumnal breeze Feeds the rich earth with Summer's gorgeous leaves! Oh, let us not Then be forgot, But to mild wings be taken ! Rich offerings To fuller Springs, When happier suns awaken. OH, BLAME ME NOT Oh, blame me not if now I smile Though Autumn cold be drear with rain! Outwards, the lips may laugh awhile. Though, inward. Soul be drenched with pain. And blame me not if now I weep. Though clouds of heaven trail no stain ! Only a shadowy dream in sleep; Stay, Love! Soon 'twill be light again. [123] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS FLY, SHADOW, FLY The stars appear on plain and height, The night her winds in leash is holding; Seawards now sinks the gull's last flight; Dark waves in splendor far are rolling; Fly, Shadow, fly, what of the lights low streaming; Twilight failing. Ocean murmurs, *^ Dreaming, dream- ing, dreaming! " I hear a song, 'tis not the sea Nor waves on rocks, nor wild foam flying; I see a form, and calling me I hear a voice that's sighing, sighing: ** Fly, spirit, fly, free the life- fever burning! " Shadow answering Flesh cries: ** Nay, Soul it is that's yearning." Be still, my heart ! What visions rise. Far in the outer seadrift, roaming; What sea-wet hair, star pearled, what eyes. Rise from those waters, fast and foaming? Fly, spirit, fly; what of the shapes that are ranging? Shadow answering Mortal crieth : ^' Changing, ever changing! " [124] 1 SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE I see vast Peoples on a shore, I see a ship with white wings sailing; It signals, cries, yet evermore Shorewards, they miss the mystic hailing; Fly, shadow, fly; what of this ship that is flowing? Spirit murmurs, " Love's the wind, blowing, blowing, blowing." I see it pass at Eventide, I see it hasten, halt and quiver, I see wan Souls upon its side Embark, and drift far down the river; Say, Shadow, say, what sail is this unshaking? Spirit answers : " Death it is, and Life that's in the making.'' I bore a torch of wavering light. Faith fed the flame, Hope fanned the fire, Down through the Valley of the Night, From mountain birth to funeral pyre; Till '' Fly," I cried, " For Death is overtaking! " But Shadow answered: " Courage, thou: Life it is that's waking! " I bore a rose through all the years, Full white it was till Love came hither, And stained it red with bitter tears; But Love did pass and it did wither; Come, Shadow, come, succor the leaves fast falling! Spirit cries: '' Nay, bring it thou, — Life, not Death, is calling." [125] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Now sink the hills, the sea line far, Night, clouds and ships to one are shading; O Love, be thou my guiding Star, Else what shall stay the dim lights fading? Fly, Shadow, fly, out from a dead world's sowing; Life cries: "Peace! Earth's all shall pass to knowing from unknowing! " The battle cry sinks low, I hear Dim clamoring voices calling, calling, " What of the Night ! Is there no cheer, Here where the rain is ever falling? " Fly, Spirit, fly, cleave thine earth shadow. Sorrow; Though cloyed with dust, Earth's Blind shall rise, Earth's Blind shall see tomorrow. Fly, Shadow, fly! Upon the light Of dusk I hear a note wide swelling. From Sea, from Land, from Heaven's Height, From ebbing tides and Ocean welling: " Hold fast, O soul, for I am the Fount and the Ending; And I am Death, and Life, and Thou, and Soul that is ascending." Fast falls the Night, dark clouds appear, White Sails slip down, the tempest rages; With curses, prayers and many a tear Again Life shuts the passing pages; Fly, Shadow, fly, what though the Life-thread sever! " Again through Worlds I'll fear," Soul cries, " Now never, forever never! " [126] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE SONG OF THE NIGHT WIND TO DIANA Goddess of Light! Now the Sun last tips The waves of the western seas, Arise from the beams of thy gilded breeze, Quivering with song from thine amber lips. Trembling to light the Dreams that share, Like Stars, the mists of thy cloudy hair. Tonight let our love be leafed in gold, From thy lily arms all full with light, White, from the love of our passion night! Here where I wait in the starlight's fold For thy luminous hair, and thy lucent eyes, Oh, beautiful wraith, arise, arise! Rise up with the forms of the fainting light. And bear me a rose all rich and red To feed our love till Love's flame be dead ! And bear me a lily all cold and white When the stars go down on our passion spent. And the Moon is our only cerement! For here in the throes of a songless land, I faint, I fail, though the time be June ; And what is the warmth of a Summer's noon, If never our songs they can understand ! Oh, make me a strain of thy light, thy breath. Though the ways of Love be the ways of Death! [127] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Though the ways of Love be the way that deems Death, for the signet of Love's excess, Yet bear me away in thy close caress To the pale of thy melting dreams! Till I pass from the World and her shadowy chase, Till I fade from the Night to thy rich embrace. Away, away, to that far sea-light. In a mist of music, trembling, free. Where the starry heights meet the waves of the sea. In that realm of song that knows no night ; Where the Spirits of Life still sing, among The filmy Dreams, Earth's living song! For I'm weary of night and of wandering far, Bound to the world of the dismal hope. And I long for the birth of a freer scope, With the longing of Earth for some distant star! As the glowing coal for the flame above. As the Light of Life for the Loom of Love! So bear me a rose all rich and red. When the stars go down on our primal night; And a cold dim lily all stately white. To feed our dreams when Love's light lies shed. When the gold leaf falls and the fruit is spent. And the Moon is our only cerement ! [128] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE \ SLEEP What is Sleep, what is Sleep! But a song that is past ; But the light that is dimmed With a night softly limned From the heart of the sun, When the day it is done At the last! But respite from full Sorrow, But a rest from the Morrow; What is Sleep! What is Death, what is Death, To the cry of the clay ; But that Peace that is sweet; But the Sleep that is meet As the fall of the leaf ; But a Night that is brief As the Day ! But a Star that is setting, For the long, long forgetting, What is Death! [129] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS AS WE GO As we go, as we go, By the edge of the sea, Through the storms of the Night, How we long for the Light! Though the Light it may be As the clouds to the free ; Indefinite, wild! Yet we grope as a Child, Not seeing, not knowing The winds that are blowing. As we go! As we go, as we go. By the light of a Star, How the Songs of the Soul With the waters outroU, From the waves of the bar Intangible, far! Through space that is not, To Time that^s forgot! How it longs to be free, By the edge of the Sea, As we go! [130] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE THE PATH OF TEARS (An Elegy on the Death of the Crown Prince of Portugal,) Oh, dry your eyes, such grief can know no tears ! Weep, weep no more, though such great primal love May find no surcease in the coming years! Weep, weep no more! Too far, too far above Earth and her Sorrows are those Hosts that move Like trails of moon-white clouds, their lightnings shed; Slow filing out, from once their nightless grove, With songless lips, sad eyes, and silent tread, And leaves fast falling sere bound round each sunken head. Play on, pass on, ye Pipers of all time! Softly with strains that to vain tears belong. Or music rife with but a fleeting prime; What matters now the forms ye pass among; For he is dead ! He of the Summer's throng Falls ere the opening of the last full leaf. And what avails him now your empty song. Or what avails him now the seedful sheaf! Then pass, pass on ye Crowds, and leave us to our grief. [131] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS For he is dead! Light, Air and Ocean, Earth And all ye elements that once did bring Communion of sweet music to his birth, Come away, come away, come hither, sing A requiem to the sod, till Night shall fling About his brow the mantle of her change! And all the Houri of Dreams that cling Upon the mists of Sunrise round him range In forms of shadowy Phantasies, all sweet yet strange. For he is dead! The sun within his eyes No more shall light at dawn the accustomed hill; No more the song upon his lips shall rise To meet the chantings of his favorite rill ; For he is dead ! See how he lies all chill. Like some white shadowy cloud upon the shore Of a strange sea, awaiting Winds that fill Tidewards, the Night with forms undreamed before ; Clouds that return, alas ! no more, ah ! nevermore. Come, all ye Spirits of the Clouds and Streams; Not with cold offerings, nor with sage palms dread, But starlight boughs quivering to earthly dreams, All lovely leaves rising from tears unshed; With low bent brows pass round our holy dead; For soon, too soon the music of the night Shall melt him to those dreams that Day hath fed Unto the eyes of Sorrow, now the white Faint stars grow full, and all the earth is robbed of light. [132] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Come, all ye mysteries, ye Heavenly throngs; Come, ye Realities in bare leaves dressed; Sorrow the pierced of heart, Joy v^ith her songs No more of Earth, Ambition sorely pressed ; And lastly Love, Love, of the bleeding breast, Love vi^ith her tears, for all save these hath died ; Love the besought. Love the forsaken guest. Ah ! yes, with trailing wing, midst forms that hide Too far from tears, I see thee come, all hollow-eyed. They say he knew thee not, yet who may guess What radiant star within his night did shine! They say he sought not Love ; yet who may press To deeper stain the vintage of the wine, Than he who takes upon the sun's incline The grape of Life upon the lips of Youth! They say he felt not Grief; yet at what shrine Does Sorrow kneel the sweeter in her ruth, Than when she wakes through love, strange eyes to stranger truth. Then round, weave round, ye fair familiar Shades, The veil of dreams, thy gossamer of tears ; Till far removed from pain, where yet still fades Earth's passing shapes, within the bosomed years The gradual change will come, and all our fears Shall seem as mist far seen at break of dawn. Draw round the veil ! Till only Grief appears The shadow of herself, and Sorrow, shorn Of tears, shall sing again, waking the Day new born. [133] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS But stay! The notes strike false; Summer hath fled! What hope of recompense can aid us now ! For he is dead ! Our life, our love is dead ! No more, no more the warm heart's blood can flow, Nor ever Love again upon his brow Shall feel the same life pulse she felt before. Oh, what avails her now the leafing bough; Or promised Springs upon a further shore. When darkness binds the fruit, and hopelessness the core. For he is dead ! O God, could we but see Aught but this empty space of doubtful years! But he is dead ! Daylight can never free Perpetual Sorrow, dwelling in our tears. Nor Night that Day, wherever Grief appears. Yet we shall one time go, as all things must, Down by the same far way of formless fears; Already is the night upon our dust; Years may seem many, yet not many; time is just! Then let us on ! Draw down the curtain ! Pass On through the years, on with each shadowy crowd, Dreams, Hopes and Fears, a melancholy mass — A Host of Pains that moan nor cry aloud! Each waiting for some hope beyond the cloud! Yet shall it speak us when the light is done; Shall aught reward us waiting there calm-browed. Each hour one less of dying ! Let us on ! Night can but make more perfect that which Day's begun. [134] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE SOUL Awake, asleep, 'tis all the same, Deep, deep within the heart, We marvel at thy magic name; We question of our own frail frame; The where it goes, the whence it came, And wonder what thou art! Yet at the last we know no more Than first we knew — than this : Now that we go by the same door We passed in birth a time before. May we again not find some shore Where life that is not, is! UNCERTAINTY Like Mariners, night-lost, we seek The dim intangibles of Life; Some little sign we fain would speak, Some little spot with daylight rife. Some little light that could avail ; Some little isle of known green ; And yet we sail, and ever sail, With only the black night between. [135] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS THE TOLL From out the womb of Fear the Soul, In earthly raiment drest, First gave to Love the lesser toll, To Death then paid the rest. Till seawards faring on it thrust, Earth-free, across the stream; Rendering to Earth, Earth's all — its dust! To Life, Life's all — its Dream. FIDELITY Those things which to us brightest seem. Are but a dream! A moment's joy, a sudden flight, As falls the slow down-gliding light Into the night. The joys and sorrows of today. The lights that play Their shadows on the hopes of men. Pass, and the Morrow comes, and then Darkness again. [136] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE All things within the total sway Fade and decay; Till Love, Love like a star appears Trembling above the mist of years, Veiled in her tears. GOOD NIGHT Good night! Not yet! The Summer's sun Hath scarce attained her northern height; The Harvest Songs have scarce begun; Too soon, dear heart. Good Night! Yet when it comes, with glorious gold, From leaf to leaf in sumptuous flight, Full Autumn, let thine heart then hold. Strain of the years. Good Night! Yes, when it comes, a Shadow, lined Full of the mild stars' thinnest light, Each as a fainting Hope, resigned. Shall whisper. Heart, Good Night! * And oh, the joy with faltering breath, As wondering, each shall of the Light Ask, and hear this, — '^ 'Tis as I saith, Dawn, and ye called it night! " [137] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Then over all a star stilled sea, And star-fields flashing gold to white; And far-off music, murmuring, free; Then will it be, Good Night! THE GARDEN OF LOVE I know a garden spot where grows Flowers, than lily or white rose More passion sweet, where ever blows A breeze more soft than any wind. And through the leaves the ripe fruits swing, And round the dawn the gold threads cling More bright than sun or anything, — Howbeit the stars do ever shine. The gold is of my Lady's hair. Than white acacias, far more fair Her breasts, and from her lips, grow there Pomegranates, needful of their stain. And in her cheeks flushed flowers find Sweet shelter, and the evening wind Cools the rich herbage of every kind That feedeth on her burning love. [138] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE Camellias cluster round her feet, 1 And hyacinth and lilies, sweet j Virginities, (and others meet For riper hours) twine her arms. More blue than bluest gentian lies 1 The star-dawn, caught within her eyes; j Faint as the little wind that sighs To wake the Morning, — so her breath. And there are cedars weird with myrrhs, Phantastic yews and curious firs. And odorous boughs and lavenders, And Silence, — that is perfect love. Nor Sun, nor Summer noons can pale That twilight space, where nightly sail On far off seas beyond the veil, — The Dream-barks bound from filmy shores. And when sweet Love unlocks the night And from the verge the moon swings white, O Then how strange the misty light That glimmers by the land and sea! [139] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS FLIGHT With a rush of wings, and a rush of air, I soared away from the people there. They of the earth who would never dare Soar away from their world of care. Out from the throes of the City's street, Hot with the pain of people's feet. To the rhythm of life with a pulsing beat Skyw^ards I flew with a motion fleet. Rigid wings to the air outspread, Fear, and phantom of danger fled. Nerves of metal and thoughts ahead, — On through the voidless airs I sped. " What care I for the earth," I cried, " Now fear and phantom of fear have died ! " Yet well I knew that I rode beside Death on the verge of that surging tide. Every moment of burning zeal, Sinews, fibers, and nerves of steel. Grip of iron, yet quick to feel Every movement of wing and keel, [140] SONGS OF THE EVENTIDE I Swiftly upwards the breezes bear, Or plunging now as the winds ensnare ; Who of the City will out and dare, Battle the wraiths of the whirling air. Who of the City will up and go Over the trees when the west winds blow? Knowing well, as they all must know, Death may wait on the plain below. Not they of the pavements, pale, effete. Fearing the things of the Night they meet, But they who know the rhythm and beat Of life, is far from the City's street; They who never will fume and fret ; They who fear not if Night be met; They who of danger will soon forget When the tide is back and the storm is set; They who of Nature are wild and free And love to fight with the things that be, Whose hearts are attuned in ecstasy With the winds of earth and the open sea. Spirit of Motion, yet unsung, Hope of the ages, now outflung From the Heart of Man that was ever wrung With the dream of the Winds to soar among; [141] LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Quivering, pulsing, like a thing Wild, yet to Man of submissive vising, Of thee who shall say what the Years may bring! What songs may a future Race not sing! Now calm, now tense, in a winged car. Free to fly to the freest star. Still of the Earth, yet the Verge not far, — These are some of the things that are! Dawnlight, Noon, and the Noon's pale beam, City and forest and distant stream Passing below in a filmy dream, — These are some of the things that seem! Moments of tense and ardent zeal. Thoughts of lightning, nerves of steel To guide each movement of wing and keel, — These are some of the things to feel! These are some of the things that free Hope in this world of Mystery. Speeding on over shore and sea, O Who may not say what beyond may be ! [142] KAY 2 \dii One copy del. to Cat. Div. ^ Oeacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Sept. 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS liilMIIIIII 018 349 979 8 I /'