• • ■ POEMS OF • • t, HUMAN PROGRESS m:f^f-7i il 'lllh'l ! :'l '''''ll'' V '^■ iiii5i||i|ii;Nivi:iy^^ !i . i!!''ii: ill ;i' I I'ly y i:'fti-ji:?' 1 I ''iillriH ':|M'; ' f!lli= EM li'iii 1^ *'! if !i";i!|!:rH'i:!Mj::i;J':ir' -■f!|i||ili'iriM!; til IK Class5Sjlii_ Rnnk .Vt 35'P(o Copightlii? CGFYRIGHT DEPOSK POEMS OF HUMAN PROGRESS .sci; -= j: ^ « o ;^ fc/0 ^ 7) t« '^ > O u C V 3 '^ t^ >, POEMS OF HUMAN PROGRESS AND OTHER PIECES : INCLUDING ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN SONNETS JAMES HARCOURT WEST AUTHOR OP ' UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL," " THE COMPLETE LIFE, "in love WITH LOVE," " THE NINTH PARADISE," ETC. aeSttfj JFotir EUustrattong BOSTON THE TUFTS COLLEGE PRESS PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1914 By James H. West Mim'di^ ©CI,A374177 CONTENTS PAGE Proem : Revolve, O Earth I i The Spirit of Song 2 POEMS OF HUMAN PROGRESS Man's Triumph-Era {^Phi Beta Kappa poem) 3 The Epic of Man 27 Miscellaneous Accelerant -ly To a Baby of the Tv^rentieth Century 38 Alpha and Omega ^o Up to the Heights 41 What Are We Here For ? 42 The Great .■> No More ^5 The Wail of Low Humanity 47 Justice ! Freedom ! 48 Courage, O Workers ! 40 Good Shall Conquer, Never Fear ci Sonnets The Dayspring e^ Reciprocation ca The New Creators 1-4 Dream-Prophecy cc Lowell c5 In Admiration of World-Helpers c6 Children's Children 1-7 Detritus, I., II., III., IV 58-60 Meditation After the Passing of Ernest Crosby 60 O Story-Teller ! Poet ! 61 Residuum, I., II 62-63 Entombed 5, To Yield 64 V vi CONTENTS POEMS OF RELIGIOUS PROGRESS Miscellaneous page Earth's Golden Prime Lies Infinitely On 65 " Signs and Wonders " 66 To Truth — My God 69 " Prepared " 70 Deeper and Higher 71 God and Man -72 Man's Best Word God's True Word 73 The Liberty Wherewith We Are Made Free 74 The Age of Good 75 In the Name of God 76 Star and Cross 76 The New Evangel 77 Uplifts of Heart and Will 78 Transformation 79 In Secret 80 Whence the Glory ? 80 " Laborers Together " 82 Sonnets Search 83 Loftier Good 84 Worship 84 Revelation 85 "Of One" 86 The Mother 86 Beacon-Lights 87 Religion as a Life 88 " I Will Lay Mine Hand Upon My Mouth " 89 Recognition of Oneness 90 Wings 91 " To Thine Own Self Be True " 92 POEMS OF LIVING Miscellaneous Man's Opportunity 93 Ungrasped 95 Thyself Within 96 CONTENTS vii POEMS OF LIVING Miscellaneous [continued) page The Path of Sun 97 Life's Meaning 98 Futures Coin in Any Realm Soul's Paradise Forever On " In Thy Youth " Soul and Sense Life's Beauty Work Confessions of a Voluptuary The Laughing Philosopher Inward Fires Sage and Clown Three Quatrains : Self-Illumined Words and Deeds The Devil of Drink Dream-Counsel Cypress-Crowned Forelooking Zeal Through the Sunset Sea After a Week with a Woodchopper At the Summit - Sonnets To Prize Life's Hardness How Sing'st Thou, Then ? Joy in One's Work The Man on the Mountain Hours of Insight My Feathered Preacher Ideal Beauty The Path, I., II 134- The Victor Spirals Heart's Treasures viii CONTENTS POEMS OF LIVING Sonnets {continued) page And Last of All I Learn It 137 Foils, I., II 13S-139 Platitudes 139 Noon in the Printing-Shop 140 True Life of Us 140 The Nameless Record 141 A Radiant Youth I Knew, I., II 142-143 Self-Made Crosses 143 Causation ■ 144 Heredity 144 Self-Gratulation 145 Across the Line : At Fifty 146 Ultima Thule 147 The Loveliest Angel 148 POEMS OF NATURE Miscellaneous In Treetop Land 149 " A Breath from the Fields " 150 Daffodils , 152 Sonata of the Dragon-Fly 153 Body and Spirit 155 Mystic River 157 Sunshine 160 Pan , 163 Sonnets One with All 165 In Suburban Woods 166 Sunrise in Codman Park 166 In Vacation 167 By Dark or Light 168 Enchanted Ground 168 So Like the Spring She Stands 169 The Earth at Play 170 Hills of Morning 170 Comrades 171 CONTENTS ix POEMS OF NATURE Sonnets {continued) p^^^ To My Old Wheel 172 On Crossing the Charles at Its Mouth 172 A Spray of Hemlock .... 17^ Gull and Wave 174 Exemplar 174 On Cape Ann I7e Dear Mother Earth 176 Two Wisps of Straw 176 Nature's Foundlings 177 The Secret 178 Spirit with Spirit 179 The Pendulum . . . ' 180 Sonnets of the Blue Hills Reservation Indian Summer 181 In the Blue Hills in November, I., II 182-183 On Hancock Hill 183 In Wildcat Notch 184 In Wonder Every Hour . 184 Winter Glory 185 On Board Ship in Sassamon Notch 186 Gain Still the Goal 186 Vine and Birches 187 "The Shanty" 188 The Silver Birch 189 The Pine-Tree igo To a Hemlock on Chickatawbut 191 December Hilltops 192 POEMS OF THE IMMORTAL HOPE Miscellaneous The Transcendent Possibility 193 The Kiss of Death 194 The Loved and Gone 19c Who Knows ? 196 The Passing 199 Gone 201 X CONTENTS POEMS OF THE IMMORTAL HOPE {coniinued) Sonnets page At the Turn of the Road 203 By the Dark-Bright River 204 Eastward Windows 204 Known of Old 205 The Vanished 206 ADDITIONAL POEMS The Bells of Como 207 Heart of Youth 227 Miscellaneous Day Unto Day 235 When Young Hearts Love 237 I Feel That I Know Her 238 Sweetest Songs Are Never Sung 240 The Schoolmaster's Dream - 242 Old Timothy John 245 Midas and Musagetes 249 Moonlight on College Hill 251 College Hill 254 Sonnets In a Country Burial-Ground 256 Love's Predicament 257 Penalty 258 To the Muse, After Silence 258 " Good-Bye " 259 Rebirth 260 Times and Seasons For a Birthday 261 Merry Christmas 262 " Then Felt I Like Some Watcher of the Skies " . . . . 262 Bon Voyage 264 Death of My Friend : the Old Year 265 Easter 266 CONTENTS xi ADDITIONAL POEMS (continued) Occasional and Personal p^gk In Grateful Love 267 To My Children on Their Marriage Day 268 " Look Back at Times " 269 Out of the Distance 271 Up Higher 272 " Seventy " 274 Sonnets Mother and Child 276 To James Vila Blake 277 In Quest to Know 278 At Spruce-Tree 279 God's Mariners, I., II 280-281 The Loyal Traitor 282 Redeem Yourself, O Land ! 282 Five Times 283 Finished 284 In Memoriam The Dead Student 285 Lewis G. Janes 288 Adoniram Judson Patterson 290 Earlier Pieces Concord River 291 Whither, Ye Stately Ships 295 The Sorrowing Wind 297 A Cane from Gethsemane 298 The Violet 301 All as One 304 L'Envoi : Meteors 305 Index of Titles 307 Index of Sonnets 312 General Index . . .• 314-328 ILLUSTRATIONS " Fragrance of clover, coolness in the deeps Beneath low branches where the long grass creeps, And most of all, the high horizon's rim. Where cloudy summits, swathed in beauty, swim." — Frontispiece " How blest are they whose feet these slopes ascend. Where Thought and Brotherhood together blend ! " — Facing page 4 " ' Come out and visit us ! ' the Blue Hills call : ' From Rattle Rock or Chickatawbut scaled See leagues of undulating glory spread ! ' " ^ Facing page iSi " Full many a placid hour Beside your edge I 've strayed. And many a sylvan bower Has Fancy there displayed." — Facing page 2g2 XU PROEM PROEM Revolve, O Earth ! You cannot zvJiirl And in yonr pat/nvay not tinfiirl Rare canvases of sky and sea And glowing faces, greeting me. Yon too revolve, my circling rhyme ! Not yours the art defying Time, Yet canvases of love you show. Where troubled hearts for rest may go. Flow on, thou Ocean at my door ! Not here alone your billows roar. But 'mid the ice of Arctic seas And round the shilling Cyc lades. Flozv too, my verse, in mobile tide / On Being 's billoivs rise and ride. Not yours to thiuider round the Poles, But haply you may freshen souls. In beauty bloom, O tasseled Corn And Wheat lands that the West adorn 1 The sunlight ' s kisses crown your head And you supply the zvorld with bread. O souTs high uplaiids zvJiere I plant ! Life's simples are your Jiarvest scant. Happy if seekers in your hills Find herbs for healing human ills. THE SPIRIT OF SONG Raptiwed by the Springtime Muse, Do the robins " will " to sing ? Do the meadow-sparrows "choose" When their liquid notes shall ring '. Nay, the lilt is in their heart, And the strains nnbidden start. Song, tJiou sonl's divine estate. Hold me ever at thy call ! Left ijt silence, glad I wait ; Used, I render thee my all. Humble is my homely lyre — Thou the spirit, thou t lie fire. POEMS OF HUMAN PROGRESS MAN'S TRIUMPH -ERA Read at Tufts College, June i8, 1906, at the meeting of the Delta Chapter of Massachusetts, Phi Beta Kappa [The poem depicts a walk with college men, with discourse on human progress] • Philosophy ( Wisdom ) the guide of life ' POEMS OF HUMAN PROGRESS /. MAN'S TRIUMPH- ERA MAN'S TRIUMPH -ERA I Hail, scenes and faces of my youth's delight ! And you no less, friends newer to my sight ; For all are one, in heart and wish and will. Who ever came in faith to College Hill. How blest are they whose feet these slopes ascend, Where Thought and Brotherhood together blend ! Where Knowledge lures the mind to highest reach, While Friendship binds the seekers each to each. Knowledge alone is but an Arctic dame ; She needs the ardor of Affection's flame, The fertile warmth which nurtures scope and plan. Ere she shall minister her wealth to man. Put well your knowledge to some frequent use, — The Alpine blossom yields its saving juice ; Cherish your brothers in the daily stress, — The calculus uncovers a caress. 'T was thus I dreamed in years when life was young ; For this no less to-day I find a tongue. Required to sing on Learning's sacred ground. What higher strain could loyal minstrel sound ! 4 J^ n P-V)