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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
Idyls OF Freedom 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
 {SECOND EDITION) 
 
 AELLA GREENE, 
 
 author of 
 'John Peters," "Gathered from Life," Etc. 
 
 PUBLISHED IN 1894. 
 

 Copyright. 
 
 1894. 
 
 
 BY 
 
 
 AELLA 
 
 GREENE. 
 
 -HE BRYANT PRINTING COMPANY, 
 FLORENCE, MASS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. 
 
 THE GREAT SACRIFICE 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 TRUTH MAKES FREE 
 
 II. 
 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA 
 "O PATRIOTS PURE AND STRONG" 
 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS 
 BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST 
 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 
 
 III. 
 THE EQUAL LOT 
 AMONG THE TREES 
 THE LESSON OF THE LILIES 
 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS 
 DAYBREAK 
 A HEAVEN 
 "WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY" 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 r\ STARS, what history 
 
 It has been yours to see 
 Enacted here since man, 
 Crown of creation's plan. 
 His wanderings began — 
 Since to his pristine joy 
 He added an alloy 
 That forth a rover sent 
 Him, fired with discontent. 
 Say since, with Eden lost, 
 The fateful bounds he crossed. 
 How dear his straying cost ! 
 Still, while in wretched plight, 
 He was not hopeless quite, 
 Nor rayless was his night. 
 
 Stars that have kindly shone 
 On paths his feet have gone — 
 Than downward, let us hope, 
 Onward more, and up — 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 Aid Still his wish and quest 
 For truth, and peace and rest. 
 Still from the blue above 
 Shine where he wars to prove 
 His patriotic love, 
 And, dying, asks you tell 
 The ages that he fell 
 To foil the tyrant's hand 
 And bless his native land. 
 And tell, as tell ye must, 
 O stars, for stars are just, 
 From what great sacrifice 
 All others do arise. 
 Tell what, foreseen, inspired. 
 And what accomplished, fired. 
 The patriot heart to live 
 For liberty and give 
 His life to make men free. 
 And aid, O stars, to see 
 That highest liberty 
 Gives equal weight of care, 
 Gives unto each his share 
 Of burdens all must bear; 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 That liberty, if boon, 
 Used w.rongly, cometh soon 
 To license, that is not 
 True liberty, but blot 
 On the historic page, 
 A hindrance to the age. 
 
 This life, this sacrifice, 
 O stars, troni which arise 
 The heavenly blessings given 
 And hope of more in heaven — 
 This life of hope for man, 
 Ye saw as it began. 
 Ye saw its teeming day, 
 O stars, and sunset ray, 
 And deathly chill of night. 
 And hint at last of light. 
 Ye saw the glorious morn 
 Of grace and peace adorn 
 The mountain heights of time 
 And shine to every clime, 
 To make all life sublime ! 
 A star 'twas guided them 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 Who fared to Bethlehem ; 
 And at cerulean poise ' 
 It sentineled their joys, 
 As o'er the Saviour born, 
 Rejoicing till the morn, 
 They mused on what should be 
 His wondrous history. 
 Stars gave the warning dream 
 Of Herod's hellish scheme 
 And guided, then, the flight 
 To Egypt through the night. 
 And o'er the child returned 
 The stars in gladness burned. 
 
 The stars rejoiced the boy 
 
 And study gave and joy, 
 
 As through the years he grew 
 
 To all the ages knew — 
 
 Till wondering sages gazed 
 
 Adoring and amazed. 
 
 Stars cheered the Christ who prayed 
 
 In lonely mountain glade 
 
 And sang their joy to see 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 The helpful ministry 
 
 Of Him of Galilee. 
 
 And when his followers slept 
 
 Ye stars in pity wept ; 
 
 And, weeping, wondered ye 
 
 At the sublimity 
 
 Of sad Gethsemane. 
 
 And when at Calvary 
 
 The sun refused to shine 
 
 Your stellar beams were sign 
 
 That Christ the slain should rise, 
 
 Completed sacrifice. 
 
 Triumphant to the skies ! 
 
 Ye stars that wondering saw 
 His answer to the law 
 Who for the sinful died 
 And poured the precious tide 
 Of his great life, to give 
 The sinful chance to live, — 
 Ye stars who heard the word 
 Sublimest ever heard, 
 That Jesus at His death 
 
lO THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 Spoke with His dying breath, 
 To say the work was done, 
 The victory was won — 
 From that sublimity, 
 That matchless agony, 
 All greatness doth proceed. 
 Thence every noble deed, 
 Thence all unselfishness, 
 Thence every pulse to bless 
 That helps the patriot die. 
 Without the question why. 
 For home and libertv. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 /^~\N days and deeds sublime 
 
 That gem this western clime, 
 O stars of Freedom, shine, 
 And shed your beams benign 
 Where Concord bridge was won, 
 And rustic Lexington — 
 
AMERICA. II 
 
 And Bunker Hill declared, 
 And Bennington, how fared 
 The foes of liberty 
 Who warred against the free. 
 
 Shine where the great and good 
 With high solicitude, 
 In meekness knelt to pray 
 To Heaven to drive away 
 The foreign foes and give 
 The country chance to live. 
 How humble and how great, 
 How fit to found a state. 
 Was he who knelt that day. 
 At Valley Forge, to pray ! 
 And may his land remain 
 The place of all good gain 
 And Freedom's own domain. 
 The home and resting place 
 Of bravery and of grace, 
 Of greatness and all worth — 
 The paradise of earth ! 
 
12 AMERICA. 
 
 Though truth the charm will break, 
 
 Still best the truth to speak. 
 
 Here, where 'twas general boast 
 
 That this was Freedom's coast, 
 
 Were human beings chained, 
 
 While Selfishness explained 
 
 That slavery was right. 
 
 And those who saw the plight 
 
 That Liberty was in. 
 
 By league with such a sin. 
 
 And dared rebuke the wrong. 
 
 That still was growing strong 
 
 While grew the nation weak 
 
 To danger that 'twould break. 
 
 Were stigmatized as fools 
 
 Beyond discretion's rules. 
 
 But, in these later days. 
 
 The scoffers dare the praise 
 
 That radicals were wise 
 
 And fit to canonize 
 
 For the sublimest skies ! 
 
 How cursed this sin the land 
 We came to understand 
 
AMERICA. 13 
 
 When Donelson was need 
 And Fredericksburg, and greed 
 Of rough-hewn havoc made 
 On Sherman's master raid 
 Of horse aud infantry 
 From inland to the sea ! 
 And need to prove our liege 
 To liberty was siege 
 Of Vicksburg and the shock 
 Of " Chickamauga's Rock," 
 Grim Thomas of the build 
 To name for Caesar's guild. 
 So Grierson's reckless dash, 
 Discreet in that 'twas rash ; 
 And Farragut in the shrouds 
 And Hooker in the clouds, 
 And Ellsworth first to die, 
 And gallant Lyon — why 
 So early sent to heaven ! 
 And why McPherson given, 
 And thousands, thousands more ! 
 How runneth up the score, 
 Through scenes of din and gore, 
 
14 AMERICA. 
 
 To Gettysburg, sublime 
 Through all the years of time ! 
 
 What tongue can tell, what pen, 
 
 The fate of prisoned men 
 
 Who, doomed to the ill 
 
 Of Andersonville, 
 
 Learned the tortures that spell 
 
 A new name for hell ! 
 
 And who can count their tears 
 
 And warring hopes and fears, 
 
 Who mourned their loved ones there, 
 
 Or slain in conflict, where. 
 
 Though glorious thus to fall 
 
 For country and for all 
 
 That's dear, and true, and high, 
 
 'Twas fearful, still, to die ! 
 
 And hard was it to know 
 
 That with the slaughter, slow 
 
 Moved the cause of right 
 
 And darkened down the night 
 
 Of doubt, with scarce a ray 
 
AMERICA. 15 
 
 To hint of coming day. 
 But rose a lustrous star 
 When he led on the war 
 Whose calm, courageous way 
 Of hero in affray, 
 Assured, at once, a morn, 
 And was the sign to warn 
 The foemen of defeat 
 Their cause was sure to meet. 
 
 Now once and three times three, 
 
 At Appomattox tree, 
 
 Give every one to all 
 
 Who heeded Freedom's call 
 
 And marched with Grant, to hew 
 
 The hard-fought journey through 
 
 The Wilderness, to see 
 
 The dawn of victory. , . 
 
 But who shall sing to tell 
 Their deeds who fought and fell 
 In all the hard campaigns. 
 
l6 AMERICA. 
 
 Who equal epic strains 
 
 For those whose crimson stains 
 
 Full thrice a hundred plains, 
 
 And reddens bloody years, 
 
 Which make them high compeers 
 
 Of all the brave that Time 
 
 Hath brought to wreath and rhyme t 
 
 Let gratitude be given 
 In joyful song to Heaven ; 
 Aye, shout and sing again, 
 Good citizens, that when 
 The nation was in dole 
 A man of prophet soul 
 Was sent to meet our need. 
 A man inspired to read 
 The meaning of the times 
 The country for its crimes 
 Was going through, — this man, 
 With genius fit to plan 
 And brave enough to act, 
 Made thus his vision fact. 
 Wielding the nation's might 
 
AMERICA, 
 
 For mercy and the right, 
 And breaking at a stroke, 
 The bondman's galling yoke. 
 
 Good stars, your radiance shed 
 
 On paths where Lincoln led 
 
 Through all those years of strife 
 
 Up to the higher life 
 
 Of Freedom and of peace 
 
 And all the good increase 
 
 That makes these states combined 
 
 The envy of mankind ! 
 
 17 
 
 IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 r^OOD stars, what prophet ken 
 
 Had Aztec Juarez, when 
 For liberty he fought 
 Against the foe who sought 
 To bind with Spanish chain 
 The Mexican in train 
 
l8 IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 Of papal Rome, to slave 
 Subservient where the brave 
 Descendants of the sun 
 Their long career had run, 
 Free as the airs that fanned 
 Their lovely native land. 
 Well ye rejoiced, to see 
 Where foreign t\ ranny 
 Had reigned, superior rise, 
 To crown the high emprise 
 Of Juarez with success 
 And so mankind to bless, 
 The fair republic bright 
 With promise for the right 
 Of patriots everywhere. 
 For each hath right to share 
 Each country of the free. 
 Wherever dwelleth he. 
 
 Still Juarez only did 
 As high examples bid — 
 Through thirty years of blood, 
 When that brave Swede withstood 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. . I9 
 
 The papal powers combined, 
 
 Who sought on all mankind 
 
 To place the Latin yoke — 
 
 Gustaviis brave, who broke 
 
 The bondage long and sore 
 
 For northmen evermore. 
 
 tie drove the power of Rome 
 
 From church, and court, and home. 
 
 Wherein the people sing, 
 
 To crown Gustavus king ! 
 
 And cadence of the song 
 
 The southland doth prolong, 
 
 Where well Emanuel strove 
 
 And Garibaldi's love 
 
 Was given for Italy, 
 
 Mankind and liberty. 
 
 And Magyars, whose Kossuth 
 For country and for truth 
 Was sacrifice, may raise 
 To favoring Heaven their praise 
 For his grand life, and twine 
 The wreath and pray the Nine 
 
20 IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 To sing to full import 
 That high in Austrian court 
 The Magyars reign, whom erst 
 The tyrant Austrians cursed ! 
 
 How bright the stars that look 
 On Scotland's famous brook 
 And bid the a^zs learn 
 That Bruce of Bannockburn 
 Was Caledonia's pride ! 
 Shine where her sons defied, 
 At Flodden field, the foe 
 That laid her banner low, 
 Yet in defeat were strong 
 To height of grandest song. 
 Beam kind on every glen 
 Known to his foot and ken, 
 That kingliest of men, 
 The Wallace of the Eld, 
 Whom, then, ye stars beheld 
 And sang him worthy praise 
 Of all the future days. 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. 21 
 
 ^hine, stars, with beams benign 
 On scene of deeds divine, 
 Where Winkelried the brave, 
 His Switzerland to save, 
 Threw on the Austrian steel 
 His mighty rage of zeal 
 And struck in death the blow- 
 To break the serried foe. 
 His followers raining blows 
 Where grand his courage rose, 
 Thus turned the tide and day 
 Against fhe cruel fray 
 Of those who sought t' enslave 
 The Switzer patriots brave. 
 Whom God's own mountains gave 
 That love of liberty 
 That fits men to be free. 
 
 And evermore shall ye, 
 Bright stars of liberty, 
 Rejoice to shine upon 
 The field where Cromwell won, 
 At Marston Moor, the day 
 
22 IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 And Stemmed the tyrant's sway, 
 Till full at Naseby, then, 
 Where royal Charles again 
 Marshaled his hosts, the band 
 Of patriots dared withstand 
 The legions of the king. 
 And all the years shall sing, 
 To let the future know 
 They routed him to show 
 That foreign he and foe. 
 Though native born, for he 
 Loved not true liberty. 
 
 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 
 
 A S truth alone makes free, 
 
 Who country loves must see 
 The truth, and love the truth 
 As ardently as youth 
 The maiden from whose heart 
 
TRUTH MAKES FREE. 23 
 
 Not even death can part. 
 
 Truth founded love gives rate, 
 
 The citizen's estate, 
 
 A country and a place. 
 
 Fraternity and race. 
 
 Alien to truth, a man 
 
 Nor country hath, nor clan, 
 
 '1 hough cas'led well and crowned 
 
 With choicest treasures found 
 
 In late or olden times 
 
 Through west or Orient climes. 
 
 Aye, foreign he, and poor, 
 
 And sick, thoui>:h mount and moor 
 
 Afford their gold for wealth 
 
 And myrrhs to bless his health. 
 
 Not loving truth, then he 
 
 Shall poor and homeless be, 
 
 Though heraldry declare 
 
 That ancient lineage rare 
 
 Makes him the rightful heir 
 
 To every land and throne. 
 
 And thou2:h the people own 
 
 The purple of his power, 
 
24 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 
 
 Rejoicing in his dower 
 And seeking bards to sing 
 Him bishop, lord and king. 
 But harps must not descend, 
 For song hath upward trend ; 
 So who but hymns for pay 
 Sings but a meagre lay. 
 And rhyme they ne'er so well, 
 The bards who seek to tell 
 An untruth in a song 
 And sing success of wrong, — 
 Some Croesus toast for wealth 
 That came alone by stealth. 
 And hymn the tyrant's power 
 As given by heavenly dower — 
 Will fail to reach the lays 
 That live in honor's praise. 
 Then, faltering down to phrase 
 Whose labored lines confess 
 They sing from selfishness. 
 They'll rave to furious stress 
 Of prayer to Power to bless, 
 When Truth alone gives theme 
 
TRUTH MAKES FREE. 2$ 
 
 Befitting poet's dream. 
 This truth, ye stars above, 
 No truth, there is no love. 
 No truth, the gold shall rust, 
 To teach the truth it must — 
 No truth, then love is lust. 
 And love of country, show 
 Which all true patriots know- 
 As subterfuge and sham 
 That would to meanness damn. 
 Beyond redeeming grace, 
 A country and a race. 
 
 Yet strange contrasts arise, 
 
 Some royal mysteries — 
 
 A king to virtue known. 
 
 Yet who could make his throne 
 
 By tricks that must belong 
 
 The hellish arts among. 
 
 The anchor of a wrong, 
 
 That should have scourge of song, 
 
 The very rage of rhyme, 
 
 To blast to future time ! 
 
26 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 
 
 The Charles whom Cromwell fought, 
 
 True to his home, was naught 
 
 But false to native land. 
 
 Though promising, his hand 
 
 Withheld the needed good 
 
 He pledged to those who stood 
 
 For liberty and right. 
 
 For these did Cromwell fight ; 
 
 For these he overthrew 
 
 The Stuart king and slew 
 
 The false one of the throne. 
 
 And by the act was shown 
 
 In England evermore — 
 
 A truth the wide world o'er, 
 
 And as the sunlight plain — 
 
 The right of kings to reign, 
 
 Original in heaven. 
 
 Is to the governed given. 
 
 By them to be transferred 
 
 In their installing word 
 
 To those their love shall say 
 
 The kingly traits display. 
 
TRUTH MAKES FREE. 27 
 
 Would Cromwell had remained, 
 Preventing crime that stained 
 Bright Albion's sovran name, 
 By other Charles who came, 
 The Charles who ever wrought 
 Injustice and who thought 
 Of self alone, and sought 
 Delight in splendid sin 
 And seemed possessed to win, 
 By elegance of shame, 
 An ever florid fame 
 Unto his royal name ! 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 II. 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 T F ill the theme befits 
 
 To sing of Austerlitz ; 
 If vain to weep awhile 
 By lone Helena's isle ; 
 If cold, to some, such theme 
 For patriotic dream. 
 In that the Corsican 
 Fought not for fellow-man, 
 But strove alone for fame 
 For his imperial name — 
 O would some one as rod 
 Of an avenging God, 
 Arise, who, sent by wrath 
 Of Heaven, should cleave a path 
 Through Tyranny's domains 
 To far Siberia's plains, 
 And break the prison bars 
 Of victims of the czars ! 
 
 The cause demands a man 
 Serener, grander than 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 The dreaded Corsican ? 
 May one with like strong hand 
 And genius to command 
 Arise — some leader born 
 Under the star of morn, 
 Some one whose shining worth 
 Shall win the best of earth 
 To highest hope and prayer 
 For Heaven's especial care, 
 And win good gallant men 
 To join his flag, whose ken 
 At once, from far, can see 
 The day of victory — 
 The men with might to win 
 The boon their faith hath seen. 
 
 O, chieftain of the skies 
 And Freedom's cause, arise ! 
 And panoplied for wars, 
 Go guided by the stars 
 That favoring shone 
 Above Napoleon, 
 In that sublime advance 
 
32 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 From his admiring France 
 That made the Russias quake 
 And all the kingdoms shake. 
 Stars they to aid to see 
 The way to victory, 
 Stars that would lustrous burn 
 To light the grand return 
 Of victors from the fray 
 Where justice won the day. 
 
 Not so the march when Ney 
 
 Fared on the frozen way, 
 
 To cheer his leader back 
 
 Along the winter track 
 
 With remnant of his host, 
 
 To mourn the prize they lost, 
 
 A city burned to ban 
 
 The mighty Corsican. 
 
 Him Russia dared not fight, 
 
 But put to sorry plight 
 
 By burning roof and bread 
 
 That should have housed and fed 
 
 The host, who froze or starved 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. ^^ 
 
 By thousands ere they carved, 
 With Bonaparte and Ney, 
 To France their pilgrim way. 
 But those engaged 
 In warring waged 
 To break the dungeon bars 
 Of prisoned worth, ye stars 
 Would good birds send to feed 
 Unto their fullest need 
 With manna of the Heaven 
 That bread hath ever given 
 To those who well have striven, 
 Through hard or favored fight, 
 In furtherance of right. 
 
 If Moscow burned again 
 'Twould light the prisoned men 
 From durance hard to flee 
 To hope and liberty, 
 The men whose dungeon bars 
 Are legacy of czars. 
 Kings whose oppression is 
 Acme of tyrannies ! 
 
34 
 
 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Those sending away 
 
 In bondage to stay 
 
 Whose glances have told, 
 
 Or a breath over bold, 
 
 That the fancies they hold 
 
 Slight hindrances are 
 
 To the wish of a czar ! 
 
 Dooming banishment 
 
 For the mildest intent 
 
 Of the patriot heart ! 
 
 O tyrant ! what art 
 
 And what spirit malign 
 
 Of the demons is thine ! 
 
 How strange that czars should ban 
 
 Those whom but easy plan 
 
 Of right would lead to own 
 
 Allegiance to the throne 
 
 And give their life to prove 
 
 Their loyalty of love 
 
 And interest in the fame 
 
 Of Alexander's name ! 
 
 But heeding not the cries 
 
 That move the pitying skies 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 35 
 
 And make the nations weep, 
 These Tartar tyrants keep 
 Their hand of tyranny 
 Against all liberty. 
 
 O, when Sarmatia's brave 
 With Kosciusko gave 
 Most valorous blows to save 
 Their country from the grave 
 That fierce tyrannic might 
 Had dug for Truth and Right, 
 Say, Heaven of justice, say. 
 Why did Thy vengeance stay 
 From smiting down her foes ? 
 O when to Thee arose 
 Their patriotic cry. 
 Why, Heaven of pity, why 
 Should fail Thy mighty arm 
 To shield their land from harm ? 
 
 And fell Sarmatia, then, 
 And her heroic men, 
 Whose patriotic worth 
 Had brightened all the earth, 
 
36 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Were graced with exiles' chains 
 And scourged across the plains 
 Afar to foreign strand. 
 There they were given brand 
 Befitting felon band ; 
 Aye, there were given rate 
 Meaner than murderer's fate, 
 Whose hands the blood had spilt 
 Of parricidal guilt ! 
 Yet there, the scorn of slaves, 
 Do these Sarmatian braves 
 Display, despite the gloom 
 Of their Siberian doom, 
 The rare sweet quality 
 Of fitness to be free ! 
 
 Read not the story through, 
 Read not of Finn and Jew, 
 Whose wrongs alone were theme 
 To fill the saddest dream. 
 Read only that dark crime 
 That chilled Sarmatia's clime, 
 And blotted Poland out 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 37 
 
 With Russian robber rout ! 
 Thou angel, brave to stray 
 So far from heaven away, 
 To note for future time, 
 The tyrant's monster crime, 
 What flame can ever pay 
 And burn the guilt away 
 That clothes the Russian name 
 With everlasting shame ? 
 
 Stay, Angel of the Book 
 
 Of Record, stay, and look ! 
 
 For this is far from all 
 
 Of Poland's direful thrall 
 
 From Russia's might, whose whole 
 
 Of tyrant dirt and dole 
 
 Hath hue of Herod's crime, 
 
 And smells of Nero's time ! 
 
 Fair women sent to pine 
 
 In dark and noisome mine ! 
 
 Or sent with felon's chain 
 
 To walk the weary plain 
 
 Where mercy hath no rate, 
 
;^S ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Where hunger hath no sate 
 But cup and crust of hate ! 
 Or hath she darker fate, 
 That is so worse than death 
 It is not given breath ! 
 
 Nor is this all ; for there, 
 
 Condemned to felon's fare, 
 
 Do patriot children know 
 
 Maturity of woe ! 
 
 O God ! where is the hell 
 
 In which damned spirits dwell 
 
 That is enough for this ! 
 
 For blotting out the bliss 
 
 From childhood's heart of joy 
 
 That never knew alloy 
 
 Of ill, nor thought to stray 
 
 In sin's forbidden way ! 
 
 Not the boldest would dare 
 Nor would anyone care 
 To learn every woe 
 That the banished ones know. 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. ^gr 
 
 Read not the story through ; 
 One page alone will do ! 
 One page alone of dread, 
 One page with terror red, 
 One page of hot tears shed, 
 One page of that despair, 
 Which fades the eye and hair, 
 Saps e'en the power to cry. 
 Gives a hot thirst to die, 
 Kills the smile on the face. 
 Blots the last look of grace. 
 Blots the last mental trace. 
 Stills the hand from device, 
 Chills the blood into ice. 
 And the nerves into bone. 
 And the heart into stone ! 
 
 O what chieftain would dare 
 In the lists with despair, 
 Though grandly he fare 
 From tournaments where 
 The giants, aflame 
 With the passion for fame, 
 
40 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA, 
 
 Contend in the fray 
 
 Of chivalry's day ! 
 
 Aye, came he away 
 
 Unhewn and complete 
 
 And longing to meet 
 
 Far fiercer than those 
 
 He found to oppose, 
 
 What victor would dare 
 
 To cope with despair ? 
 
 How dead the heart, how dead, 
 
 With hope forever fled ! 
 
 And yet 'tis so quick 
 
 That it trembles at tick 
 
 Of the seconds of time 
 
 And the pulsing of rhyme 
 
 Of the song that keeps tune 
 
 With the cadence of June ! 
 
 Though despairing till dead, 
 
 Yet it trembles with dread 
 
 At the tenderest song 
 
 That is wafted along 
 
 Over clover and corn 
 
 On the breath of the morn ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 4I 
 
 And it quivers and quakes 
 At a zephyr that shakes 
 But as gently as jar 
 Of the beams of a star 
 That in rose-scented hours, 
 Bright glancing in bowers, 
 Responds to the flowers 
 That smile, to invite 
 The cheer of the light 
 Of the beauty of heaven, 
 In stellar beams given. 
 
 Aye, there's never a heart 
 That's alive to all art 
 And is beating in chime 
 With nature's sweet rhyme. 
 But if conquered by fear 
 Would shudder to hear 
 Even music of waves 
 Of the streamlet that laves 
 The myrtle banks sweet 
 Where the fairy ones meet. 
 In elfin land grove. 
 
42 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 To warble of love ! 
 Aye, held by despair, 
 No victim could bear 
 Breath from elfin land, where 
 But a breath of the air 
 Ot the earth would displace 
 The planets that trace 
 Round the fairy land sun 
 The courses they run. 
 What then is the fate 
 Of the victims of hate 
 Of the despot who reigns 
 O'er the Russian domains. 
 And his victims doth cast 
 To the pitiless blast 
 Of the northland, or wills 
 That in Caucasus hills 
 They shall dig till they die. 
 And dishonored shall lie 
 In a far away grave 
 Too mean for a slave ! 
 
 O if angel could bear 
 An exile's despair, 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 43 
 
 What angel could tell 
 
 Their tortures who dwell 
 
 In a cell of the hell 
 
 Of Saghalien, or give 
 
 Their terrors who live 
 
 In Kara's dark mines 
 
 Where hope never shines 
 
 To mellow the fate 
 
 Invented by hate 
 
 Of the barbarous czars? 
 
 They challenge the stars 
 
 Of the heavens to find 
 
 The exiles who grind 
 
 Hard toiling through years 
 
 Of blood and of tears. 
 
 When worn unto death 
 
 They sigh their last breath 
 
 Afar in that land 
 
 Where doubt damns the strand 
 
 Till o'er the wild sand 
 
 Howl the fiends of despair 
 
 And hiss through the air 
 
 Such foes of all weal 
 
44 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 As ecstasy feel 
 
 To sparkle of hell. 
 
 And after a spell 
 
 They twinkle their eyes 
 
 With gleam of the skies. 
 
 Aye, they vary to ray 
 
 Of heavenly day, 
 
 To hint that a morn 
 
 The waste shall adorn. 
 
 Where no morning can come 
 
 To the castaway's gloom ! 
 
 Endured the tyrants laugh. 
 And like the Chaldean quaff 
 At high imperial feast 
 To their full wishes drest, 
 The nectar of their pride 
 That long hath Heaven defied- 
 Potations proudly poured 
 To mock the names adored 
 By Poland and by man 
 For leading freedom's van ! 
 Wine drunk in Tartar hate. 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 45 
 
 From vessels desecrate 
 
 That came from temples where, 
 
 In their devotions rare, 
 
 The loving and the free 
 
 Their feasts of liberty 
 
 In Polish custom held, 
 
 Far back in days of Eld ! 
 
 O Heaven ! whose lurid star 
 Maddens to might and war ! 
 When thou shalt undertake 
 The Russian yoke to break, 
 Say, Heaven of justice, say. 
 What blood can ever pay 
 The wrong to Poland done 
 By those whose ravage won 
 By Vistula's fair tide, 
 That, often crimson-dyed 
 From noblest patriot slain. 
 Goes moaning to the main ! 
 
 Ye thrice ten thousand dead, 
 Whose blood the Cossacks shed 
 In homes of Praga fair. 
 
46 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 How eloquent your prayer — 
 
 A plea to Heaven to aid 
 
 A land in ruin laid. 
 
 And emphasis of gore 
 
 Hath this from thousands more 
 
 Where Warsaw's reddened plains, 
 
 That Freedom's ichor stains, 
 
 And Cracow's crimsoned sod, 
 
 Still wail their plaints to God ! 
 
 Fair Wanda's mountain moans, 
 
 Responsive to the groans, 
 
 And Dnieper makes her cry, 
 
 For Dniester to reply ; 
 
 And from the Don to San, 
 
 Rebuking Russian ban, 
 
 Blood red the waters gleam 
 
 Of each Sarmatian stream !-- 
 
 Whichever way it track, 
 
 To Baltic or the Black, 
 
 Sad, sad each river flows, 
 
 A requiem of woes. 
 
 From Poland to the seas 
 
 That chant her miseries ! 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 /^N Ural hills it came, 
 
 A tongue of prophet flame, 
 A burning thither sent 
 From out the firmament 
 Of justice, love and truth, 
 And everlasting youth. 
 And thus the fervid voice : 
 "O tyrant! have thy choice, 
 To turn to righteousness 
 And teach thy hands to bless — 
 Repent the despot's crime. 
 Worst tyranny of time, 
 Or take the doom that falls 
 Thereon — the mighty walls 
 Of tyranny thrown down, 
 The dimmed and wrested crown 
 Of monarchs in defeat. 
 With conscience to repeat 
 To all the winds that fleet — 
 * The tyrant's fate is meet !' " 
 
48 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 Thus, while the bright night heard, 
 Swift flew the warning word 
 And sought by westward star 
 The palace of the czar. 
 There, round the festive board, 
 His nobles and their lord 
 Glowed o'er their ruddy wine. 
 In toast of new design 
 To make the exiles weep 
 And keep the world asleep 
 Anent the wrongs that steep 
 The tyrant Tartar's name 
 In infamy and shame. 
 
 But stay, why trem.bles he? 
 What vision doth he see ? 
 No ghost in festive hall ; 
 No hand upon the wall. 
 To make his pleasures paU. 
 No fiend his eyes detect ; 
 No peasant to suspect. 
 Tried ministers attend ; 
 Full foot and horse defend 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 49 
 
 The throne and citadel 
 Where czar and kindred dwell, 
 And cordonned round the land 
 Grim guarding legions stand ! 
 Yet pales the czar with dread ! 
 He deems assassins tread, 
 With blade athirst and blast, 
 To drink his blood and cast 
 In atoms to the sky 
 The halls of tyranny ! 
 
 The voice from Ural hills 
 Flamed forth hath gone in thrills 
 Of swiftest breezes blown 
 Along the northern zone, 
 And many leagues afar 
 In palace of the czar 
 With trembling terror fills. 
 To consternation chills 
 The ruler of the land. 
 And not invention planned 
 To keep supreme at home 
 His reign, if foes should come, — 
 
5© VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 And not ambitious schemes 
 That give him pleasant dreams 
 Of other lands to gain, 
 Of widening domain 
 To great increase of dower, 
 To boundlessness of power — 
 Not one of these, nor all, 
 Can break the chilling thrall, 
 And drive the fiends away 
 That on his spirit prey ! 
 
 And evermore shall cling 
 
 Those fiends, and tear and sting. 
 
 And for new vigor drink 
 
 The ichor, black as ink, 
 
 'Of veins of tyranny 
 
 That fed on liberty 
 
 Through many, many years. 
 
 Drank river floods of tears 
 
 And jeered a thousand sneers 
 
 At patriotic sighs 
 
 Drawn by a czar's emprise ! 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 5 I 
 
 After the burning spoke 
 
 And round the echoes woke 
 
 Responsive to the doom 
 
 The flame announced to come, — 
 
 Soft blazed the voice of truth, 
 
 In tones of tender ruth 
 
 Of love's sweet firmament, 
 
 A message eastward sent 
 
 By one appearing there 
 
 From out the upper air. 
 
 Who seemed to high emprise 
 
 Commissioned by the skies. 
 
 He wore that loveliness 
 
 That doth high worth express 
 
 In angel or in men 
 
 Of angel mien and ken. 
 
 Away on zephyrs borne, 
 He came at tinge of morn 
 To bleak Siberian strand, 
 The northern demonland. 
 There imps abound in air 
 Who give their constant care 
 
52 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 That when the tyrants die 
 Some sprite of ill shall fly 
 To convoy them to hell, 
 Reporting there how well 
 They have performed the work 
 The monarch of the murk 
 Assigns, and, thus, how far 
 They have obeyed the czar. 
 
 From spirit of the sky 
 The imps affrighted fly. 
 And well escaped his might, 
 They pause them in their flight 
 And hiss in powerless ire 
 Their breath of spiteful fire, 
 That freezes on the air. 
 And now they backward fare. 
 To see if stranger sprite 
 Shall think him to alight. 
 And soon he turns to fly. 
 That bright one of the sky, 
 His plumage to begrime, 
 Down through the jagged rime 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 53 
 
 Of rock where guardsmen pace, 
 To keep the exile race. 
 And this the world of cheer 
 The toilers, listening hear : 
 "Good patience, still, ye braves 
 Condemned to fate of slaves ! 
 Against Oppression's throne, 
 The Mighty makes His own 
 The cause of those who, long 
 In suffering, still are strong." 
 
 Glad on his herald tongue 
 
 The delvers hopeful hung. 
 
 Yet scarce could angel's cheer 
 
 Dispel an exile's fear. 
 
 Forth then the voice of flame ; 
 
 And soon a lovelier came — 
 
 An angel with this word : 
 
 " The message ye have heard 
 
 Was told to me in heaven 
 
 Whence all good gifts are given. 
 
 So strange 'twas thought 'twould seem, 
 
 So fanciful the dream. 
 
54 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 Another one was sent 
 Attesting the intent 
 Of powers above to bless 
 With buoyance in duress 
 And exodus from chains 
 To Freedom's fair domains." 
 
 The angel ceased and drew 
 
 A stylus forth of hue 
 
 Of the cerulean blue 
 
 And ruby stone and white, 
 
 And straight began to write 
 
 Upon the prison mine 
 
 With deep cut lustrous sign. 
 
 No words the delving said, 
 
 But breathless watched and read ; 
 
 And forth the angel fled. 
 
 Came then a third to say : 
 " Toilers, ye have seen to-day 
 Two of the seven prized most 
 Of the selectest host 
 Of all the armies bright 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 55 
 
 Bannered in realms of light. 
 Aflame with brightest star, 
 That host ten thousand are, 
 With place of honor given 
 The thousand best of heaven, 
 They who the most have blessed. 
 As heaven's accounts attest, 
 The sorrowing ones of earth. 
 And honored most true worth. 
 And those a hundred best 
 Have placed before the rest. 
 The hundred giving seven 
 Most pleasing unto Heaven 
 The highest, foremost place 
 Of all the angel race. 
 
 " And of this number, one 
 Is Uriel of the sun. 
 And Raphael gracious is 
 And given to ministries. 
 And most sublimities 
 Hath missioned been to see, 
 And most of misery. 
 
56 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 The first your boon 10 tell 
 Was flaming Uriel, 
 And Raphael who came 
 To witness Uriel's flame 
 And cheer with face benign 
 The delvers in this mine. 
 
 ^' Led Israfil the throng 
 In that first Christmas song 
 That told the waiting earth 
 Of a Redeemer's birth. 
 And he of all the seven 
 From out the weeping heaven 
 Flown sad, in sympathy 
 And wondering tears, to see 
 The dread sublimity 
 Of rugged Calvary, 
 Stayed sentinels and kept 
 The tomb where Jesus slept — 
 The loveliest of the sky, 
 Who gave himself to die. 
 And their rejoicing eyes 
 Beheld the Saviour rise 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 57 
 
 And saw the earliest ray 
 That tinged an Easter day. 
 
 •* As, in God's economies, 
 
 What once is true, forever is. 
 
 And truth for angels holds for men, 
 
 So, evermore, as when 
 
 To watching spirits came 
 
 The primal Easter flame. 
 
 The best of honors given 
 
 To man this side of heaven 
 
 He wins who faithful waits 
 
 With Right through cruel fates. 
 
 Who bides with Worth through shame 
 
 Shall have a lustrous fame ; 
 
 With Christ through night of scorn, 
 
 The joy of Easter morn ! 
 
 And this, if fervors beat 
 
 Of summer's fiercest heat. 
 
 If 'tis November drear, 
 
 Or if that time of year 
 
 Whose wintry breath 
 
 Is genuine as death ! 
 
58 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 " Not oft do mortals see 
 In quick succession three 
 Celestial ones, as ye 
 This day have seen and heard 
 In glad prophetic word. 
 Yet men this truth may know, 
 That for each want and woe 
 Some angel waits above 
 Commissioned by the Love 
 Supreme, to fly and prove 
 With blessings from the skies, 
 That He is kind and wise 
 And doth permit the stress. 
 To give Him chance to bless 
 And those who suffer, place 
 To struggle into grace 
 Of goodness and the dower 
 Of perfectness of power. 
 Whoso behaveth right, 
 Whatever be his plight ; 
 Whoever thinketh bright. 
 Important, happy thing 
 To say, or paint, or sing, 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 59 
 
 Hath influence from the sky, 
 And voice to ask him try 
 To make both fine and strong 
 The word, the tint, the song. 
 Who heeds the first, gains more 
 Of the celestial store 
 That gives uplift from trite 
 To new, from slough to height, 
 From weakness unto might, 
 From dryness, deadness, blight, 
 To bud, and leaf, and bloom, 
 That hint of Junes to come. 
 O gracious boundlessness 
 Of Heaven's power to bless ! 
 
 ** Keep sweet, O patriots, ye 
 
 In this hard slavery, 
 
 And some day ye shall see 
 
 The tyrant bend the knee. 
 
 To ask for leave to fly, 
 
 By conscience scourged, to die 
 
 Beneath this bitter sky — 
 
 Here, where the clank of chains 
 
6o VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 Doth fright Siberian plains 
 
 To barrenness and dearth 
 
 Unknown elsewhere on earth — 
 
 Here, where such blight has blown 
 
 Forever from the zone 
 
 Of doubt, that ail the air 
 
 Is dense with chill despair !" 
 
 Seen or invisible, 
 
 As seemeth to them well, 
 
 The spirits come to tell 
 
 The words of wrath or love 
 
 That emanate above. 
 
 And though alert to sounds 
 
 And sights that vex their rounds, 
 
 The guardsmen of the mines, 
 
 Sworn to the czar's designs. 
 
 Saw not those whose emprise 
 
 Was threatening from the skies. 
 
 Though came they bright as stars 
 
 To speak the doom of czars. 
 
 But read the guards in mine 
 
 The deeply-written sign, 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 6l 
 
 And sent a message far 
 
 To citadel of czar. 
 
 And he to frenzy flew, 
 
 And worse each moment grew. 
 
 Imperial mandate given, 
 The royal guards had striven 
 The writing to erase. 
 But none could yet efface 
 Indictment graven there 
 By one of upper air. 
 And livid in that mine 
 Fierce glistened still each line : 
 *' Unless the czars repent 
 Before the firmament 
 And right the wrong 
 Their hate hath done so long. 
 For Poland's cup of gall 
 The Russian throne must fall T' 
 
 The czar a chemist sent, 
 Who with fierce caustics went, 
 To eat the message out 
 
62 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 That so had put to rout 
 The pleasure of the czar, 
 And toiled from dawn to star 
 With fiery rust and bar. 
 
 Homeward a horseman flew, 
 And this the message true : 
 
 " No science can begin, 
 Nor skill, the race to win — 
 The words are burning in !" 
 Some straying peasant heard 
 The courier's fateful word 
 Reported to the lord 
 Chief courtier of the king. 
 And all the people sing, 
 And children join the din, 
 
 " The words are buriiins; in /'* 
 
 Again, the man with bar 
 And rust to please the czar. 
 And tear the message out. 
 Of which the people shout. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 63 
 
 And with his mission o'er, 
 Reports he as before : 
 '' A span, a foot, a rod — 
 Swift science doth but plod. 
 The words do inward fly 
 As missioned from the sky !" 
 
 In rage the monarch flew. 
 The alchemist he slew, 
 And sent another still. 
 With threat to chain and kill, 
 Did he not burn or tear 
 That message of despair. 
 And with him fared a guard 
 That no one should retard, 
 Nor scientist should flee, 
 If unsuccessful he. 
 Returned, he trembling said. 
 As forth the guardsmen led 
 Him, strongly held and bound. 
 To slay if faithless found : 
 •" A foot, an ell, a rod — 
 The message writ of God 
 
64 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 About a nation's sin 
 Is further burning in /" 
 The guardsmen aim to fire ! 
 The monarch cries, " Retire 
 With him in heavy chains 
 To wildest northern plains ! 
 The recreant's mocking breath 
 Must not the ease of death !" 
 
 Fruitless the despot's plan 
 
 Of banishing the man. 
 
 Borne by the ready airs, 
 
 His message onward fares 
 
 Through scenes of joy and dearth 
 
 Around the peopled earth ! 
 
 Hill tells it unto fen. 
 
 The wilds to homes of men, 
 
 The mountain to the moor, 
 
 The robin at the door 
 
 Of cottage and of hall — 
 
 That broken soon the thrall 
 
 Of Russian slaves will be, 
 
 And joy of Liberty ! 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 65 
 
 And chant the brooks and birds : 
 *' The angel-written words 
 About a nation's sin 
 Are ever burning in /" 
 And other birds are singing 
 In every morn of winging, 
 In every noon of flying 
 For food for birdlings crying, 
 And eve of homeward hieing 
 To nest, and rest, and love, 
 A message from above 
 Befitting lark or dove 
 To sing in all the earth : 
 "Man's greatest wealth, his worth. 
 His unearned plenty, dearth ; 
 His best of liberty. 
 Deserving to be free." 
 
 Still other birds that fly 
 And sing, they know not why. 
 Thus cheer, inspire and warn 
 At eve and happy morn ; 
 " Whatever first success. 
 
66 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 What flatterers address, 
 
 How fondly love caress, 
 
 How praiseth selfishness 
 
 That hopes returns to bless. 
 
 Whatever is the stress 
 
 Of noyance that doth press. 
 
 War waged for wrong is wrong, 
 
 And weak and never strong. 
 
 And weak is war for might ; 
 
 But ever finds true knight 
 
 All powerful war for right. 
 
 For God is in the fight ! 
 
 Though right should lose the fray. 
 
 And victory delay. 
 
 Yet surely comes the day 
 
 Of victory, to stay. 
 
 And show that right hath might ; 
 
 For God is in the fight !" 
 
A WARNING TO COLUMBIA. 
 
 "pUT briefly where it sung 
 
 The sentient glowing hung. 
 Then overseas it came, 
 The fearless warning flame, 
 And o'er Potomac's tide 
 In indignation cried, 
 As, eyeing halls of state, 
 Mid-air the burning sate, 
 Self-poised in conscious truth 
 And sense of lasting youth : 
 " For shame, Columbia, shame ! 
 Bedimming thy bright name 
 By leaguing with the power 
 That claims by heavenly dower 
 Each individual soul 
 Of lands in his control. 
 With right to dominate, 
 Unto severest fate 
 Those bending not the knee 
 At nod of Tyranny ! 
 
68 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA. 
 
 '' Why dost thou promise, why, 
 That when to thee shall fly 
 Those fortunate to break 
 Their bondage and to take 
 Across the seas their way, 
 West guided by the ray 
 Of freedom, to thy land, 
 They shall be held for hand 
 Of czar, whose wrath they flee, 
 To fly in hope to thee? 
 These sent to despot back. 
 To dungeon and to rack. 
 For holding but the thought 
 That ill the monarchs wrought 
 Who joyed to curse 
 With an oppression worse 
 Than the tyrannic crimes 
 Of old barbaric times ! 
 In league, Columbia, why, 
 With Russian tyranny ?" 
 
 In silence, then, the flame. 
 To hear if answer came 
 
A WARNING rO COLUMBIA. 69 
 
 From out Columbian hall. 
 And, saying '' Deaf to all, 
 And to thy past untrue !" 
 The lustre, sighing, flew 
 To welcome of the blue, 
 That bent, sad questioning. 
 And bade the birds to sing. 
 And brooks — " Columbia, why 
 In league with tyranny ?" 
 
 O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 
 
 r^ PATRIOTS, pure and strong, 
 
 And waiting now so long 
 Surcease of this hard fate, 
 Wait on, for God doth wait ! 
 For Christ, when in the fate 
 O'er which all nature wept 
 And Heaven sad vigils kept, 
 His slayers could forgive, 
 And died that they might live. 
 
70 '*0 PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG.' 
 
 He shed in death the tears 
 That permeate the years, 
 And ever plead with man 
 The beauty of the plan 
 Of giving bread for blows, 
 For thorn, the thornless rose 
 Of love, that sweeter grows 
 Through trials oft and sore — 
 That, wounded o'er and o'er, 
 Doth from its fragrant store 
 The balm of good disburse 
 And blessings breathe for curse. 
 
 To keep this code of heaven, 
 The patriots have forgiven, 
 In hope that kindness win 
 Who seventy times should sin. 
 But seven times that have striven 
 These foes of man and Heaven, 
 And by ten thousand times 
 Have multiplied their crimes! 
 And Heaven impatient grows, 
 And, noting long the woes 
 
*'0 PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG." 71 
 
 Of Poland and of all 
 
 Within the Russian's thrall, 
 
 Will surely send a hand, 
 
 To write where tyrant band. 
 
 In revel o'er their wine, 
 
 Shall read and know the sign 
 
 Grim glistening on the wall, 
 
 That tyranny must fall ! 
 
 Aye, patience may endure ; 
 
 But wrath deferred is sure. 
 
 And soon the man shall rise 
 
 To hear and heed the cries 
 
 Of victims of the czars. 
 
 And then, O waiting stars, 
 
 How will ye shout and sing, 
 
 And call the birds to wing 
 
 In swiftest flight, to tell 
 
 Wherever patriots dwell. 
 
 His name who conquered Tyranny 
 
 And set the exiles free, 
 
 And Poland's flag unfurled 
 
 To honor in the world. 
 
72 "O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 
 
 Aye, God will heed the cries 
 
 Of Poland's agonies. 
 
 For, though his name is Love, 
 
 And His the carrier dove, 
 
 Yet His the eagle is. 
 
 And all the majesties 
 
 Of all the life of earth. 
 
 Since far creation's birth ! 
 
 He gave the tiger power, 
 
 And ocean monsters dower. 
 
 To lash the seas to rage 
 
 And mighty ships engage. 
 
 He taught the earth to quake, 
 
 And made the mountains shake. 
 
 'Twas He created light 
 
 And piled the Alpine height. 
 
 He set the rhythmic spheres 
 
 To cadence of the years 
 
 Of the eternity 
 
 He gave the right to be ! 
 
 His Christ of Olivet 
 
 And Galilee used, yet, 
 
 A scourge ; His Moses saw 
 
"O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 73 
 
 The lightnings of the law 
 From Sinai blaze, to tell 
 That with Jehovah dwell 
 All powers, and it is well 
 With those alone who fear 
 Him, and in truth sincere, 
 Hold all His statutes dear, 
 Who live for righteousness. 
 And never to oppress. 
 And He, if stubborn prove 
 The czars to pleas of love, 
 Will call some iron man 
 To execute His plan, 
 To thunder forth His wrath 
 And plow with war a path 
 Through tyranny's domains 
 And break the exiles' chains. 
 And lead each patriot band 
 To home and native land. 
 
 Fail not, protesting rhyme 
 Against the Russian crime. 
 Fail not his worth to sing. 
 
74 "O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 
 
 Who, once in Russia king. 
 
 Had righted much of wrong, 
 
 Had not the furious throng 
 
 Smote Alexander down 
 
 And set the Russian crown 
 
 Against the Polish cause 
 
 Of Liberty's good laws. 
 
 But Polish patriots see 
 
 A crime in anarchy. 
 
 No vengeance on their foes 
 
 Would they ; but thornless rose 
 
 And white, and every flower 
 
 Of Peace for those whose power 
 
 Hath been so long the ban 
 
 Of Russia and of man ! 
 
 Unselfish in their grief. 
 
 These patriots seek relief 
 
 For all who feel 
 
 The tyrant's iron heel. 
 
 To people of the realm 
 
 They seek to give the helm 
 
 Of Russian power. 
 
 As rightful dower. 
 
''O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG." 75 
 
 Nor charge they the rod 
 Of tyranny to God. 
 And spurn they the extremes 
 Of the ill-visioned dreams 
 Of those anarchic fools 
 Whom wild unwisdom rules, 
 They of that base alloy 
 Which nerves men to destroy. 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 
 
 A 17" ILL tyrants turn, who make 
 Their chief delight to break 
 The patriotic heart. 
 And name their crime an art ! 
 Yet grant imagination scope. 
 And patience chance to hope 
 That czars be won to sense 
 Of need of penitence, 
 Or scourged until they see 
 How wrong the cruelty 
 
76 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 
 
 That gives to Poland tears, 
 And damns a thousand years I 
 
 Should miracle be done 
 The greatest under sun, 
 The visioned stars have seen, 
 And czars repentance mean — 
 Go, czars, by conscience sent, 
 Go, honored to repent. 
 Go, with your burden bent 
 Go any way ye must, 
 Go, if through thorns and dust 
 Go, if with heavy chains 
 Like exiles o'er the plains ! 
 Go, grateful that you may ; 
 Go, seek fit place to pray. 
 Go where the zephyrs say 
 That sigh from heaven's way ! 
 Go, foes of liberty, 
 And fall on suppliant knee 
 Where dust of Kracut is 
 'Mid Cracow's mysteries. 
 The first of Polish kings 
 
A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 77 
 
 The muse of History sings, 
 
 The Slavic chief of time 
 
 Ere czars had cursed his clime. 
 
 There, pleading not the claim 
 
 Of royalty or fame, 
 
 But only His good name 
 
 Who gave the one reliet 
 
 That owned himself a thief — 
 
 There tell the skies your sin, 
 
 Aware as ye begin, 
 
 That Christ, the ever kind, 
 
 With justice mild, consigned 
 
 To millstone and the sea 
 
 The unwept tyranny 
 
 Of Pharisees of old, 
 
 To whom ye likeness hold. 
 
 Kneel, then, in Cracow, where 
 
 The soul of Wanda fair 
 
 Doth frequent still the air 
 
 Above the hill that claims 
 
 Sweetest of Polish names. 
 
 And ask you there of Heaven 
 
 If czars can be forgiven ! 
 
BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST. 
 
 'T^HEN, with this pleading done, 
 
 If beams benignant sun, 
 Or if for you there shine 
 One ray of star benign ; 
 Then seek another grave, 
 His place whom Heaven gave 
 To show to czars and earth 
 A Polish patriot's worth, 
 And sent to aid, in youth, 
 Columbia's cause of truth. 
 There, by this hero's rest, 
 See, if, with prayer addressed 
 The Heaven of Liberty, 
 Czars can forgiven be 
 Of Heaven and of the free ! 
 There hear from far the cry 
 Of those who hope, or try 
 To hope, before they die, 
 To see once more the home 
 From which dear memories come. 
 O ! memories that burn 
 
BY KOSCIUSKO S DUST. 79 
 
 And into torments turn ! 
 
 How must the exiles yearn 
 
 For once to grasp the hand 
 
 Of kindred in the land 
 
 Of their great leader's birth, 
 
 The dearest land of earth ! 
 
 O, cruel tyranny ! 
 
 That freemen may not see 
 
 For once the boyhood farm, 
 
 Sweet with the pet brook's charm ; 
 
 For once the childhood cot, 
 
 For once the play-place grot. 
 
 For once the daisied mead. 
 
 For once two paths to lead, 
 
 As once, to trysting place 
 
 Of bravery and of grace ! 
 
 For once the grassy mound 
 
 That love's fair roses crowned ! 
 
 There Linka's ashes lie, 
 
 Who had the choice to die 
 
 Or tell the tyrant's spy 
 
 When by His Highness bid, 
 
 Of patriot Pavel hid ! 
 
8o BY Kosciusko's dust. 
 
 And there's the outlook hill, 
 And there the near-by rill, 
 And there the other stream, 
 Whose unforgotten gleam 
 Inspired the boyhood dream 
 Of busy, stirring life, 
 Of joy in hardest strife. 
 Of earning high success 
 And coming home to bless, 
 With nobly won largess, 
 The village where in joy 
 Erstwhile dwelt the boy ! 
 Instead, condemned to pine. 
 Imprisoned in a mine. 
 For that high quality 
 That fits men to be free. 
 There, where the good man lies. 
 Best of the sanctities 
 Of the Sarmatian land. 
 There, tyrants, stand. 
 There, tyrants, kneel, 
 And well the honor feel ! 
 There, ye who give a slave 
 
BY Kosciusko's dust. 8i 
 
 The right to choose his grave, 
 The felon, who atones, 
 With hempen halter, groans 
 He caused, the right to say 
 Where ye his bones shall lay — 
 There, by Kosciusko's dust. 
 Be honest, once, and just ! 
 There talk, repentant czars, 
 With conscience and the stars, 
 The eyeing stars, that see 
 What is sincerity. 
 And will no fleeting mood 
 Of tears for years of blood ! 
 Tell stars and conscience why 
 In vain do freemen cry 
 To you for boon of serf. 
 For one green stretch of turf. 
 Where, from foreign strand 
 Sent back to native land — 
 Where, if not given breath 
 At home, they may at death 
 Be sent to final rest. 
 To slumber unoppressed ! 
 
•82 BY Kosciusko's dust. 
 
 Cannot endure the stars? 
 Why, there's a place, ye czars. 
 Where stars do never shine. 
 And whence no royal line 
 Or peasant cometh back 
 By straight or devious track — 
 But onward still must fare 
 Whoever goeth there ! 
 -And there's another, too, 
 Where stars are never due, 
 But lurid lightnings glare, 
 And demons rule the air ; 
 And hither none shall fare 
 That ever enter there ! 
 And there's another still 
 Of flowery plain and hill 
 Of Sion, blest abode 
 Of angels and of God ! 
 And of the saints who rise 
 From earth's hard agonies 
 To freedom of the skies ! 
 But, untransformed by grace 
 To fitness for the place. 
 
BY Kosciusko's dust. 83 
 
 In heaven no tyrants live ; 
 For heavenly blisses give 
 Such influence that 'twere hell 
 For tyrants there to dwell. 
 
 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 /^ ye unthinking czars, 
 
 Why contradict the stars ! 
 For they have lived to see 
 Too much of history 
 To deign to a reply 
 When even Russians lie ! 
 Boast not your hosts in arms, 
 That give the world alarms. 
 For steel-clad giants are 
 But pigmies to a star.^ 
 Stars laugh at all your power 
 And point to Shinar's tower, 
 That was, and Babylon, 
 
84 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 That boasted to the sun 
 Of her Chaldean might ! 
 And held the world in fright, 
 And perished in a night ! 
 And but her ruins tell 
 Of Babylon that fell ! 
 
 And point the stars, to king 
 Of whom but furies sing, 
 The Herod throned of yore, 
 But cursed forever more 
 In street and cloister lore. 
 
 From scanning these 
 
 Look back to Rameses, 
 
 Whom and whose like gave tears 
 
 For twice two hundred years 
 
 To chosen sons of God. 
 
 And these condemned to plod, 
 
 Scourged by oppression's rod 
 
 That grew by gore, 
 
 These, through their bondage sore, 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 85 
 
 Upon God's promise fed, 
 Till, brave enough, they fled, 
 Bv visoned shepherd led. 
 
 And now the sea before 
 Withholds from freedom's shore. 
 And prisoning mountains stand 
 To hold for Pharaoh's hand. 
 But look ! the flood divides. 
 Heaven holds apart the tides ! 
 The fugitives pass through ; 
 Menephtah's hosts pursue. 
 But fierce returning waves 
 Whelm in their watery graves 
 Ruler, horsemen, all — 
 A wreck that hints the fall 
 Of the Egyptian throne. 
 O'er which in warning moan 
 The ages sweep, to say 
 That tyrants pass away ! 
 
 Man's title to be free 
 Is writ in history, 
 
S6 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 And finds, to prove it, given 
 The very truth of Heaven. 
 And, sweet as favoring word 
 By wooing Honor heard, 
 The song of brook and bird 
 And Zephyr's minstrelsy 
 Are music of the free. 
 So everything decries 
 The despot's tyrannies. 
 In waking life of spring, 
 When glad the robins sing ; 
 In the persuasive breath 
 Of June from flowery heath ; 
 In airs that sweeten shade 
 Of pleasant wooded glade 
 And move the fairy ferns 
 To dance by merry burns ; 
 In storms around the peaks 
 Where fierce the thunder speaks 
 In chill November's gale 
 That sweeps the frosted vale ; 
 In Ocean's sullen roar 
 On Winter's icy shore — 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 87 
 
 In all her ministries, 
 The voice of nature is 
 Rebuke of tyrannies. 
 
 In tender tones and mild 
 As plaintive voice of child, 
 In clarion peal, and strong 
 As burst of lyric song ; 
 Commanding, deep and slow 
 As centuries that flow 
 Through history 
 Toward eternity — 
 The olden warning word 
 Repeated, now is heard 
 In all the upward trend 
 To Consummation's end ; 
 The word in every wind, 
 The word in every mind. 
 But yours, audacious czars. 
 Who contradict the stars — 
 Let ye my people go ! 
 Let ye the exiles go !" 
 
OTHER POEMS. 
 
 II. 
 
THE EQUAL LOT. 
 
 A 1 T'lTH equal hand, impartial Heaven 
 
 Bestows on all, the blessings given 
 To cheer the earth. 
 
 If birds that bless the morns of spring 
 Alone at regal courts would sing, 
 We might complain. 
 
 But everywhere, from hill to shore, 
 The joyous warblers artless pour 
 Their songs for all. 
 
 As grateful thine anemones 
 And all the perfumed potencies 
 Thy rose exhales 
 
 As odors they of kingly kind. 
 Empurpled in a palace, find 
 The flowers to yield 
 
 That grow by royal gardener dressed. 
 And bloom with smiles of princess blessed,. 
 On sacred days. 
 
THE EQUAL LOT. gt 
 
 Nor sweeter sounds than you or I, 
 Hears king or Croesus, walking by 
 The purling brook ; 
 
 Nor, navied in their gilded boats. 
 Than we embarked in common floats. 
 More restful plash 
 
 Of wave ; nor surer they to ride 
 In safety to the haven side 
 Of waters sailed. 
 
 Nor king than we has sweeter hymn 
 Of Zephyr ; nor doth Sunset limn 
 Diviner west 
 
 Forking, with hues from heavenly fount ; 
 Nor nearer is the royal count 
 Of stars than thine 
 
 To His who outlined nature's plan 
 And reared the astral arch, to span 
 The universe ! 
 
AMONG THE TREES. 
 
 T 17" HERE nature reigns distinctions fade 
 That pride may bring to grove and 
 
 glade, 
 To flaunt them there. 
 
 Rank has no sway at nature's court, 
 And Fame is there of small import, 
 And pelf is scorned. 
 
 Impartially, when vernal breath 
 Proclaims the winter's reign of death 
 Is at its end. 
 
 The maple buds portend the June, 
 Whose leaves shall cool the torrid noon 
 Of summer time. 
 
 To thee as kindly welcome wave 
 The elms as unto prince they gave 
 Who fared that way. 
 
 And wild and tender harmony 
 The pensive pines address to thee 
 As unto all, 
 
AMONG THE TREES. 93, 
 
 And breathe balsamic airs of health, 
 Uncaring for their rank and wealth 
 Who seek the boon. 
 
 The quiet beauty of the beech 
 
 To thee as unto all will teach, 
 
 If thou wilt learn. 
 
 The loveliness of real worth, 
 Whatever station in the earth 
 The worthy have. 
 
 To thee as grand the oaks that hold 
 Discourse with crags of mountain bold, 
 Anent the storms, 
 
 As unto royalty they seem ; 
 And for thine eyes as brightly gleam 
 The autumn woods 
 
 As for the monarch who desires 
 
 To imitate their gorgeous fires 
 
 On robes he wears, 
 
 But finds that futile is the sleight 
 Of kings to deck themselves as bright 
 As nature shines ! 
 
94 AMONG THE TREES. 
 
 Contrasting with the snowy lands, 
 As sombre-hued the hemlock stands 
 To symbolize 
 
 Thy grief, as though the dark, cold green, 
 Sighing, bemoaned with northland queen, 
 Her consort dead. 
 
 And when again the trees in bloom 
 Dispel the thoughts of death and doom, 
 And hope inspire. 
 
 Thou canst the graceful tasseling 
 That decks the birchen boughs of spring 
 As well enjoy 
 
 Uncrowned, untitled and unknown. 
 As though instated on a throne 
 Of kingly power. 
 
N 
 
 THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 
 
 ATURE rebukes presumptuous men, 
 And yet invites the constant ken 
 Of reverent souls. 
 
 And still the words the Master saith, 
 Who cam.e of old from Nazareth, 
 Nature repeats : 
 
 Consider thou the lilies well, 
 O man, who thinkest thou canst tell 
 Their coloring, 
 
 And canst the processes divine 
 Wherein the primal hues combine 
 That beauty give, 
 
 And tell the fragrances that meet 
 To make those rarest odors sweet 
 That lilies shed. 
 
 Consider thou the lilies well, 
 O man, who thinkest thou canst tell 
 What lilies are — 
 
g6 THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 
 
 Perfections of the alchemies 
 Wherein the chemists of the skies 
 Have wrought their best ! 
 
 And lilies not alone meant He 
 Who taught on hills of Galilee, 
 Their loveliness. 
 
 But all the flowers that decked the field 
 For him did sweetest pleasure yield, 
 And theme for thought. 
 
 And, eloquent above thy speech, 
 The flowers will still their ethics teach^ 
 O man of earth. 
 
 As when, to prove His doctrine true. 
 In Palestine, the Teacher drew 
 From nature's store. 
 
 And, mortal, thou canst ever find. 
 If well instructed is thy mind 
 By heavenly power. 
 
 Such high renewal of thy might. 
 Such inspiration and delight. 
 And rest, and peace. 
 
THE LESSON OF THE LILIES. 9/ 
 
 In thinking on the works of God, 
 From tiny twig and velvet sod 
 To mountain peak, 
 
 As thou, in thine ambitious schemes 
 Fulfilled unto thy brightest dream'^, 
 Can'st never find ! 
 
 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 
 
 T^HE sweetest songsters carol 
 
 Among the Berkshire hills, 
 In harmony with music 
 
 Arising from the rills 
 That flow with silvery murmur. 
 
 In melody along. 
 And charm as if in heaven 
 
 They learned the art of song, 
 And were by Him empowered 
 
98 THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 
 
 Who formed the starry spheres 
 
 And guides their rhythmic motion 
 
 Through all the circling years. 
 
 Bright brooks ! they came from heaven. 
 
 To teach the tuneful art, 
 And woo men from their sorrows 
 
 And from their cares apart ; 
 To teach them high behavior, 
 
 And gentle ways and true, 
 Inspiring them with courage 
 
 To fight life's battles through ; 
 The while, through all the harshness 
 
 That gives to earth its ban, 
 They live attuned for living 
 
 Where harmony began. 
 
 There other brooks, in chorus 
 
 With other birds, shall sing, 
 To tell the power and goodness 
 
 Of the Eternal King ; 
 And welcome home the singers 
 
 From dissonance of time 
 
THE SINGING OF THE BROOKS. 99 
 
 To melodies of heaven 
 
 And zephyrs of the clime 
 With music far exceeding 
 
 The cadence of the rills 
 That carol with the songsters 
 
 Among the Berkshire hills. 
 
 AT DAY-BREAK. 
 
 A T last along the eastern sky 
 The glimmerings of morn, 
 To end in radiance of joy 
 
 A night of doubt and scorn ! 
 
 Dread night — it was a winter long ! 
 
 And cold with winds of fate, 
 That still, through all their fiendish song. 
 
 Were hot with ire of hate 
 
 And live with imps whose interludes 
 Chimed with the airs, to tell 
 
lOO AT DAY-BREAK. 
 
 The rancor of infernal feuds — 
 Fit minstrelsy of hell ! 
 
 But now the birds with carols high 
 
 Charm all doubt's fiends away. 
 
 And crimsons now the eastern sky, 
 To hint a coming day, 
 
 That shall through all its hours remain 
 Unvexed by doubt and scorn, 
 
 And in the full of noon retain 
 
 The newness of the morn ! 
 
 A day whose evening shall proclaim 
 That brighter dawning waits, 
 
 Fulfillment of the sunset flame, 
 At the celestial gates ! 
 
A HEAVEN. 
 
 \ 1 rHEREVER bloom the happy isles 
 
 In lasting verdure drest. 
 Whereon perpetual morning smiles 
 High welcome to the blest, 
 
 No glided barques bear any there ; 
 
 Nor, borne o'er summer seas, 
 Do any find the orchards fair 
 
 Of the Hesperides. 
 
 As story made a dragon bold 
 
 The fabled apples guard. 
 
 So, now, who seeks for fruit of gold 
 Opposing fiends retard. 
 
 But on the good the truth bestows 
 Herculean power to slay, 
 
 By valor's well directed blows, 
 The monsters in the way. 
 
 Wherever the elysium is. 
 
 In what good land afar. 
 
I02 A HEAVEN. 
 
 And gained by what high ministries 
 Of what benignant star, 
 
 It is not reached along the way 
 
 Where sirens charm the sea ; 
 
 But seek, the warning angels say, 
 Through Christ of Calvary, 
 
 The kingdom of conditions high, 
 Where quality hath rate. 
 
 Where fitness, and not heraldry, 
 
 Gives entrance through the gate. 
 
 For what man is, not where he is. 
 
 His heaven is, or hell ; 
 His heaven the heavenly qualities 
 
 That prompt his doing well. 
 
 His heaven that high ennoblement 
 
 That gives to whom 'tis given, 
 
 The blessing of a heart content 
 To win his way to heaven. 
 
WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR 
 COUNTRY. 
 
 A BOVE the grandeur of the sunsets 
 Which delight this earthly clime, 
 And the splendors of the dawnings 
 
 Breaking o'er the hills of time, 
 Is the richness of the radiance 
 Of the land beyond the sun. 
 Where the noble have their country 
 When the work of life is done ! 
 
 There is the mysterious problem 
 
 Of their earthly life made plain ; 
 There the bitter turned to sweetness, 
 
 There the losses turned to gain. 
 There the rapture of the new life 
 
 Far exceeds the griefs of this. 
 And earth's toiling is forgotten 
 
 In the restfulness of bliss. 
 
 And the music of their welcome, 
 From angelic lyres of gold. 
 
104 WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY 
 
 Shall full often be repeated, 
 Yet it never shall grow old ; 
 
 Music grander than earth's noblest, 
 Than all eloquence of words 
 
 And the sweetest of the carols 
 Of the gladdest of the birds ! 
 
 Welcome there, and there forever 
 
 Free from artifice of time, 
 Shall the noble of that country. 
 
 In the real of that clime, 
 Read the virisdom of the Father, 
 
 From whose all-creating hand 
 Are the beauties, and the glories. 
 
 And the people of that land. 
 
 There they rightly read the visions 
 Of the ancient seers, that give 
 
 Higher good than urban splendors 
 Where the saints at last shall live. 
 
 There they surely find a heaven 
 Not conventional or made, 
 
WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY I05 
 
 And inhabitants delighting 
 
 In the hillside, brook and shade ! 
 
 For magnificent with forests 
 
 Is that country of the skies, 
 Far excelling in their bird-songs 
 
 All the earthly minstrelsies. 
 And that country hath its mountains 
 
 And is resonant with streams 
 That are sweeter in their music 
 
 Than the rivers of our dreams ! 
 
 Blooms of finest form and lustre, 
 
 Fragrant on the eternal hills, 
 With their odors bless the zephyrs. 
 
 That, harmonious with the rills. 
 Sing, to give the angels pleasure 
 
 Who were fit to sing the birth 
 Of the Savior of the sorrowing 
 
 And the sinful of the earth. 
 
 And, His mission there completed, 
 He shall reign with them above 
 
I06 WHERE THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR COUNTRY 
 
 And instruct them in the wonders 
 
 Of the country of His love, 
 Where He giveth them an entrance 
 
 And that higher work to do 
 That shall keep them ever growing, 
 
 x\nd the charm of living, new. 
 
 And His name throughout the ages, 
 
 As the aeons circle by, 
 To the trend and the cadence 
 
 Of their own eternity. 
 Shall be theme and inspiration 
 
 In the land beyond the sun, 
 Where the noble have their country 
 
 When the work of life is done ! 
 
CLARE. 
 
 A RAVEN folds his wings 
 Where Susquehanna sings 
 A deep unceasing dirge ; 
 And, chiming with the surge, 
 And sadder than the song, 
 The bird, the whole day long. 
 Cries forth from pines that sigh 
 Beneath November's sky ! 
 Yet vain the chant, how vain 
 The whole commingled strain, 
 To give a full relief, 
 Or even lessen grief. 
 When over loved ones slain, 
 Bereaved hearts complain 
 That woman false should prove 
 To constancy of love. 
 In vain the pine trees sigh, ' 
 And bird and river try 
 To tell their blessings fled 
 Who mourn their Roderick dead. 
 
I08 CLARE. 
 
 For he such joy had given, 
 
 To them he seemed from heaven. 
 
 But came a fateful day 
 To sweep their hopes away ! 
 Protecting angels ! spare 
 The earth from more like Clare, 
 Who lit, to quench, the fires 
 Of love's supreme desires, 
 Joyed o'er the fading glow, 
 Laid then the altar low. 
 And gloried in the guilt 
 To wreck the temple built 
 Of peace, by hope, above 
 The silver shrine of love. 
 And these in ruin say 
 How sad that fateful day. 
 Betrothed from her own choice. 
 To make his heart rejoice 
 Who faithfully and well 
 Had loved, by message fell 
 Clare put his joy to rout 
 And ruthless blotted out 
 
CLARE. 109 
 
 The star that makes men glad 
 And, failing, drives them mad. 
 
 At middle of the night, 
 
 When hope had borne such blight 
 
 'Twere midnight were it noon, 
 
 November were it June ! 
 
 Doubt's night, when 'gainst despair, 
 
 Worst fiend of all that are. 
 
 The lover long had striven, 
 
 At midnight, demon-driven — 
 
 He knew not what he did ! 
 
 Blame him ? O Heaven, forbid ! 
 
 And Heaven their hearts sustain 
 
 Who mourn their Roderick slain. 
 
 And yet they bravely keep 
 
 Life's course while still they weep. 
 
 And braver than to live, 
 
 The sorrowing ones forgive 
 
 The cruelty of art 
 
 That broke a lover's heart 
 
 And drove him to the deed 
 
 For which their hearts must bleed 
 
CLARE. 
 
 Throughout the desert years, 
 And they shed bitter tears 
 O'er one with sweetest worth 
 That ever perfumed earth, 
 O'er one whom traitor gave 
 To an untimely grave. 
 
 So of this sadness voiceful surge 
 
 Of river sang, and so the dirge 
 
 Of pines, and all the winds that blew, 
 
 Told what no yeoman was but knew, 
 
 No dullest vision but could see 
 
 Was useless here more witchery. 
 
 Yet here, where seem the rocks in tears 
 
 And giant oaks to thrill with fears. 
 
 The artful Clare dissembles pain 
 
 Of grieving love o'er lover slain, 
 
 Till some, repenting scorn they gave, 
 
 Of feigning Clare her pardon crave. 
 
 And speak in tones that fall like rain 
 
 On thirsty herbs of fevered plain ! 
 
 The hint of wish to fare away 
 
 They gently chide, and press to stay, 
 
CLARE. Ill 
 
 And beg a frequent friendly word 
 By postman fleet or carrier bird. 
 Then, flushing fine from their caress 
 Who pray celestial graciousness 
 The grief-rent heart of Clare to bless, 
 The queen of arts that do not fail 
 Goes forth to quest in other vale ! 
 
 How many there her arts reward 
 The song were weighted to record. 
 Yet many 'twas, and there, of all 
 Entranced, but one too brave to fall. 
 This Donald was, blithe, wise and strong. 
 From land of heather and of song — 
 So gallant, unobtrusive, good, 
 ' Twere naught to read the noble blood 
 Descended from some hardy clan 
 Whose valor back to Wallace ran. 
 And blended, in the days of eld, 
 With might the glorious Bruces held. 
 Discerning Scot, as Scots are born, 
 With inner sight to ken and warn. 
 He read her arts and read to scorn. 
 
CLARE. 
 
 And tossed a calm derisive *' nay," 
 And said, as needless ' twere to say, 
 " Fair one withhold the huntsman's horn, 
 Nor urge thy steed the chase forlorn. 
 Although thine arrows oft have slain, 
 To speed them here again were vain. 
 Till easier game thine eyes shall see 
 Before thee, queen of archery ! " 
 
 Defeated once, but hopeful still. 
 The artful is victorious till. 
 Returning where her course begun. 
 Art wins again where erst it won. 
 Inbreathing, from the airs that fleet 
 And from the souls her arts defeat. 
 New qualities of woman's power 
 To add to her abundant dower. 
 Audacious grows the conquering Clare, 
 Till, daring sacred precincts where 
 The ashes loved of Roderick sleep. 
 And bowed bereavement comes to weep, 
 She startles from affection's prayer 
 The kin and comrades faithful there — 
 
CLARE. 113 
 
 Yet artful so they near believe 
 Her artfulness, that would deceive 
 Almost the angels of the skies, 
 So saintly seem her sophistries! 
 Assuming role of mourner, too, 
 Who sorrows more than others do. 
 She comes in tears and tearful goes. 
 Returns in tears and plants a rose. 
 And tarries oft in practice there, 
 To learn the art to feign a prayer ! 
 
 Thus once from dawn to evening star, 
 When stranger fared who came from far, 
 From England's coast, in quest of fame, 
 P'rom England's coast, with Albion's 
 
 name. 
 Though great his English consequence 
 And all sufficient for defence 
 Against most pleasures aimed to try 
 To swerve from his endeavors high, 
 It was not proof against the Clare 
 Discovered thus by Albion there, 
 A lovely grief alone at prayer ! 
 
114 CLARE. 
 
 If power there be in woman's smiles, 
 How thrice bewitching are the wiles 
 Of woman tremulous with fears, 
 Of woman grieving unto tears. 
 And charming if the grief sincere. 
 Her sorrow feigned more cause for fear, 
 When greater than the true appear 
 The acted sigh, and look, and tear. 
 
 Tell not the story, though 'tis brief, 
 Of Albion won by woman's grief. 
 So fully won that those who warned 
 He heeded not till charmer scorned. 
 Tell not the tale, though briefly said, 
 Of Albion loving, Albion dead, 
 Self-slain because refused by Clare, 
 The charming grief he found at prayer. 
 How great the woes of woman due 
 At Roderick's grave and Albion's, too ! 
 At hint of day she weeps by one, 
 13y other with the setting sun ! 
 But yonder, poised on buoyant wings. 
 An angel messenger, who sings: 
 
CLARE. 115 
 
 " Fair one and false, inconstant Clare, 
 'Twere ill for one from upper air 
 For once a woman's mind to taint 
 With words that any vices paint 
 To which her cruelties have driven 
 Good men whose virtue, sweet to heaven, 
 Bloomed fragrant on the airs of earth 
 With odors of celestial worth ! 
 And who shall tell the griefs that crazed 
 Till calmest minds erratic blazed. 
 Then sunk forever in the night 
 Of deepest hopelessness of blight ! 
 Or who describe the crimson tide 
 Where love, defeated, rashly died. 
 Although the busy following years 
 Of triumphs won through causing tears, 
 May for the moment thrust aside 
 Remembrance of the first who died 
 To whom, in plighting troth, she lied. 
 Not long doth Clare forget, I ween, 
 The color of the tragic scene 
 When he went out a darkened way. 
 Not even Clare forgets that day — 
 
Il6 CLARE. 
 
 Not even Clare, where 'er she stray. 
 Not even Clare doth long forget 
 The sadness of the sun that set 
 When first a victim of her slight 
 Rushed wild, despairing into night? 
 
 " But that dark night shall have a morn, 
 
 O Clare, who didst his pleading scorn, 
 
 A morn when thou from night shall see 
 
 His spirit in felicity, 
 
 High mated in that country where 
 
 No one like thee shall ever dare, 
 
 O fair, inconstant, cruel Clare ! 
 
 " Forgiven by his gracious kin 
 
 Thy keenest cruelty of sin. 
 
 Straight from his death, all unoppressed. 
 
 Thou faredst forth on other quest, 
 
 To win again, again to prove 
 
 Thy sure inconstancy of love. 
 
 And now, although in pride arrayed 
 
 And flushing from achievements made. 
 
 Thou comest to dissemble here 
 
CLARF. 117 
 
 The power to shed a truthful tear, 
 And try the feat, of feigning, Clare, 
 The awe and agony of prayer, 
 To aid thee sorrowing love to feign, 
 That should another lover gain 
 For thee to crush, to see his pain ! 
 Then thou wouldst drink his being up 
 And toss aside the broken cup 
 That was a faithful lover's self, 
 As but the pence of beggar's pelf, 
 And forth to other conquest fare, 
 Inconstant and insatiate Clare ! 
 Responsive to thy nature's call. 
 Here Albion gave to thee his all. 
 Drank thou his soul to thy delight. 
 And all his power, to give thee might. 
 Drank thou with that high ecstasy 
 That speaks a woman's liberty ; 
 And then, the consummation done. 
 Thou, cruel, fair, inconstant one, 
 With might he gave didst giver slay, 
 And say to all his pleadings nay — 
 Thv victor soul to steel didst turn 
 
Il8 CLARE. 
 
 And Albion from thy presence spurn ; 
 
 And alternated back to prayer 
 
 Still other souls to charm and snare ! 
 
 Nor wouldst thou rest until thine arts 
 
 Had snared and drunk a thousand hearts^ 
 
 That each increased the art of Clare 
 
 By thousand fold of power to snare, 
 
 And all the kingliest of the earth, 
 
 Mistaking artfulness for worth, 
 
 Should rave in eloquence of praise 
 
 Of thine enrapturing ways. 
 
 Or cringe meek suppliants for thy smiles 
 
 And, for them rivals, by thy wiles, 
 
 Should die in duels for thine hand 
 
 Till rashness reddened every land ! 
 
 With airs to sigh a deep refrain, 
 
 And stars in tears above the slain 
 
 That cumbered every plain 
 
 From northmost to Antarctic main, 
 
 And mighty angels trembling o'er 
 
 The prodigality of gore 
 
 From Orient to western shore, 
 
 And saints forgetting bliss on high 
 
CLARE. 119 
 
 To shudder with the peaceful sky— 
 This, this, O Clare, were unto thee 
 The acme of felicity ! 
 
 " But thou shalt never capture more. 
 Thy day of conquest now is o'er ! 
 'Tis mine, fair one, the word to speak 
 That, spoken, must life's tenure break. 
 To some that word is but a boon ; 
 Yet unto most it comes too soon. 
 But seem it soon, or seem it late, 
 Or mean it boon, or mean it fate, 
 Or seem it just, or seem it fell. 
 When missioned here, that word I tell ; 
 For I, fair one, am Azrael. 
 And here that word as dart I send 
 Thine artful cruelty to end ! " 
 
 The listener, speechless, quivering stood, 
 Then, reeling, staggered toward the flood. 
 The spurning waves soon cast ashore, 
 And fishers, finding, pitying bore 
 To lonely glen and buried there, 
 
I20 CLARE. 
 
 Where meagre marble reads of Clare ! 
 
 There weird the pensive pine trees sigh 
 
 Beneath the gray November sky, 
 
 And raven comes on sombre wings 
 
 And gruesome to the river sings, 
 
 That, chanting sad and ceaseless strain, 
 
 Bears burden to the distant main 
 
 Of love that perfidy hath slain. 
 
 And mournful whispering with the dirge, 
 
 Distinct above the river's surge. 
 
 And sigh of pines and note of bird, 
 
 The spirit of a voice is heard : 
 
 "" O maiden fair ^ do thou be true, 
 
 Or thou shalt long thy falseness rue ! 
 
 O woma7i false, beware, beware j 
 
 Repent thy ways, give heed to Clare /" 
 
 O who shall tell the damning guilt 
 Of her who wrecks ideal built — 
 By her desired, by her inspired — 
 By lover by her wishes fired. 
 Than this there is no greater crime 
 In all the rounds of troubled time, 
 
CLARE. 121 
 
 Beneath the wide-beholding sun — 
 Who murders love, hath murder done ! 
 
 O ye compelled to be 
 
 Acquaint with perfidy 
 
 Till ye might think that Clare, 
 
 Was type of all the fair, 
 
 Come where the roses rare, 
 
 And clover blooming there, 
 
 Shed forth upon the air 
 
 The story of a love 
 
 Whose fragrance cheers above 
 
 The breath of sweetest June 
 
 Of Summer's boon ! 
 
 Where sweet a shining river 
 
 Flows singing to the sea 
 
 And purls with charming cadence 
 Where smiling landscapes be, 
 
 Gemmed bright with pleasant mansions, 
 That in perspective seem 
 
 The counterpart of castles 
 
122 CLARE. 
 
 That fill youth's brightest dream- 
 There, sweet within that valley, 
 
 In other days, a scene 
 That fills with choicest fragrance 
 
 The years that intervene ! 
 
 And for that scene the valley 
 
 A finer verdure spreads 
 When, cheering after winter, 
 
 The May sun radiance sheds. 
 And brighter flame and crimson 
 
 And lovelier dun and gold 
 The hardy mountain beeches 
 
 And valley maples hold. 
 When frost and autumn sunshine 
 
 Their chemistry have done, 
 In glorious completion 
 
 Of work the spring begun. 
 
 Dear vale of Metawampe ! 
 
 Sweet by the sunrise shore 
 Of thy majestic river, 
 
 Delightful evermore, 
 
CLARE. 123 
 
 An arbor was where Lillian, 
 
 Who Leon promise made 
 But later wrecked the plighting, 
 
 By unwise kindred swayed, 
 Returned, at last, repentant, 
 
 To bid his hope relive, 
 And there so bravely humble 
 
 Knelt asking him forgive. 
 
 And quick above the sadness 
 
 That darkened weary years 
 And weighted him with sorrow 
 
 Exceeding words and tears, 
 There broke serenest radiance 
 
 That ever augured day, 
 Or woke a heart to courage, 
 
 Or lit a wanderer's way. 
 
 With gentle hand, 
 In fairy-land 
 To thoughts sublime she led him ; 
 With grandest views. 
 And nectar dews. 
 
124 CLARE. 
 
 And heavenly fruitage, fed him ; 
 From field and sky 
 And mountain high 
 
 Inspiring lessons read him ; 
 With tender art, 
 From her true heart, 
 
 A sincere promise said him, 
 Naming a day, 
 A month away, 
 
 A happy day towed him. 
 
 That good day came 
 With sweet t6^ flame 
 
 The Orient ever lighted. 
 To signalize 
 The golden ties 
 
 Of loving hearts united ! 
 Day sweet with airs 
 That banished cares 
 
 And to high thoughts incited ; 
 Day spanned with blue. 
 The whole day through ! 
 
 As if all wrongs were righted 
 
CLARE. 125 
 
 And sang the lark 
 Till all birds dark 
 Had flown from earth affrighted ! 
 
 Sweet vale of Metawampe ! 
 
 Therein since that dear day 
 Auspicious time for trysting 
 
 The silver nights of May. 
 For, then, from favoring Heaven. 
 
 Swift where the lovers wait, 
 Thrilled with the thoughts surpassing 
 
 All else however great, 
 
 Fly ministrants commissioned 
 
 To utter words that save 
 From cowardice the lover 
 
 And make the maiden brave. 
 And when the pledge is spoken 
 
 To crown love's high emprise, 
 They soar from Metawampe, 
 
 To tell the waiting skies ! 
 
'M 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 llliiliiilliililllllillillilliil 
 
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