BY SALLIE HOFFMAN PERRY I Copyright 1910 by Sallie Hoffman Perry ©CLA^Tsir^:? \ - o ^ ->\ y'^\> I'V ons of g)ixpencE ** Sing a Song o' Sixpence, A Pocketful o' Rye. ' — Mother Ooose. €CHO of the nursling heart All in manhood's yesterday, Prythee, gentle Myth, depart Not, albeit life is gray; Fellow yet its wiser art With its childhood's roundelay. Ho — the Song o' Sixpence still! Hey— the Pocketful o' Rye! Phoenix, charred of bone and quill Shall a classic flame defy — Let the Four and Twenty trill. Deathless, from their seething pie! Mother's rag- wove carpet fine Decked the parlor where the King Clinked his pelf, and Father's nine Beehives by the orchard spring Honey-heaped the pantry shrine Of the Queenly pleasuring. 20 POEMS Where the Blackbird ^Iched a nose Off the Maid her homespun fair Caps, and smocks, and furbelows Spanned our plot and brushed the pear Near the door — how soft its blows Filled the eaves trough hanging there! Bless the Song o' Sixpence still — Foreword lisping manhood's lore! Life is gray with toilsome ill. Pained in flesh, in spirit sore; Gentle Myth, somewhat fulfil Yet thy lullaby of yore. 21 POEMS ifWonition Tlober ^OSEFARING Summer bee— -^^ Waif at my lattice wall — Bard in the jasmine fall Tuning thy minstrelsy. Pray, were thy buskins fine Wrought in a fumy swirl Mid the blown flush and pearl Of my love's eglantine ? Rosefaring Summer bee — Waif at my lattice wall — Bard in the linden thrall Tuning thy minstrelsy, O, by the balmy vine Caroled a lightsome girl. Troth-ringed, one fondling curl Bosomed with lock of mine ? 22 POEMS Voto of JBpBonea ^TAY thee, vaunting heart, let Memory slow Trace a shore of dunes that ever strow Sallow-turfed an olden place of woe: Time is like a sigh, low frets the dim Wave, the silvery hills are wan, and slim, Weary herbs each weary dune betrim; Twangs the hurtling locust round the sand — Pallid all that pensive birchen land As its foam-pale bird above the strand. Thence, O heart, no gay ambrosial bee Trolls to Fancy mid thy lattice tree: Dearth is there and withered constancy. Welaway! Thou hast been fain to lie, Dune-bestrown and passionless, there by A dead maid where Time is like a sigh. 23 POEMS a Eetrogpect '7I|'JM[HEN myself was child-self — welaway, ^^^^^i^ Placid foretime of the jocund hours And the somber years ! — abode three gray. Unwed sisters, pledged in golden dower's Covenant to bide unwedded aye. Wifehood thus forethralled in loveless ban. Lands excelled the troth of prince or hind; Moiling and austere, Janet and Ann, Phoebe, gentle-browed and wearing blind. Three and gray abode the spinster clan. Through an aspen coppice, vine-bespread, Curved a lane to where the turnstile veered — Hitherward when childly missions led How oblivious all, and vague, and weird Save the winsome garden blithely red! Soft returns the homely weaving-room Fraught with smell of mandrakes garnered long, Phoebe hesitant beside the loom. Child-self's patient page, or tale, or song Reaping riband gaud and wisp of bloom. — 24 POEMS O the winsome garden redly |?lithe! Richly wry the barberry hedge unpruned. Finches tinkled mid the hops that, lithe. Flared above the cote where martins Juned- Thrift, indulgent, lopped with tardy scythe — While sweet- William, wallflower, many a rose. Poppy, lady's-slipper, leafy ruth Of Love-lies-bleeding, hollyhock whose blows Sunned a bee in every silken booth Dappled all the tuneful, savory close. Welliway, life's tranquil foretime! — Three Passive graves hap-canopied with rude Weeds (unblithe, unruddy garden!) — Ye Sisters, welaway! Lament imbued. Friends, I would this versing memory. 25 POEMS lanBploftfjEjfaitf) " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." — Holy Writ. iHERE a Northern headland curves the tide Like an Indian's arrowed bow, and, far Edged, unhewn, the olden forestside Frowned — illumined not by day or star — Faring ships discern a sanctijBed Cross — a weather-beaten shaft and bar. Once a tonsured meek, wise-hearted one Sought the dusky people of the wild Here and on this grassy height begun His evangel of the Undefiled; And, the red man to the paleface won, Manitou with Christ was reconciled. Strove wise-hearted Friar Ambrose long On the Northern shore, and here, betime, Christward folk in moccasin and thong Knelt where chapel bell gave pious chime. While the Cross that towered the belfry song Folded all in benison sublime. 26 POEMS "Certify me, shall the saintly ,will Ban the dream of smiling fancy ? Lo, Beareth God a blighting aspergill Casting only tear and sweat of woe?" Sighed the friar on his Mission hill — Cried the man with many a heartsick throe. Thence, when twilight waters hemmed the strand With repose, or like some wizard bard Winds thrummed every cedar, on the sand Friar Ambrose mused where pearly shard Strewed a homily while overspanned Somber meanings, mystery bestarred: "Lo, doth God enmesh us unaware? Felleth He by love, high Virtue's pride ?- Ah! doth Hell seduce by Heavenly snare? O, I yearn me sore for clasp of bride. Childly tie of mine own seed, and fair Hearth where joy and sympathy reside!" 27 POEMS Straightway curbing plaint would Ambrose wend, All remorseful, to the chapel shrine. Near his bruised Savior there to bend. Moaning plea for clemency Divine: Thus his natural manhood to amend — Shriving so the blossom of the vine! Ministrant, submissive, passion sealed. Friar Ambrose wrought him now a grave In the Mission's quiet garden field. Where, when dayspring traced the humid pave. Crept he downward, praying unrevealed. Chanting lone the Miserere stave. Roundabout the casual, dropping loam Smote him hushfully; the lissome weed Overhead that girt the bramble's dome Leant as if to learn the murmured bead: "Lord, Redeemer, bid Thy pilgrim home!" Wailed the worldsick penitent his need. 28 POEMS Bypast are the Mission brothers, turned Otherwhere — and Ambrose meekly still Tarries, mid a clovery meadow urned. Progress rifts the wild with mart and mill. And a Cross, by faring ships discerned, Tops a bypast Mission on the hill. 29 P O E M S ^TUDENT of Life, despair, yet ever turn To ponder still the text that wildereth thee — Life's analects all shadowy and stern: So dim, so vexed the bound of fallacy The questing sage shall fools' delusion learn And fostered lore the lore of error be. Student of God, by the frayed page of Creed Interpreting, full gently, humbly bless Th' uncreeded, lest, through love's withholden deed. Faith be enthralled in rancor's chill duress. And muse, O censor soul, how warped our meed Of knowledge, be it creeded or creedless. Student of Mystery, shalt thou be shown That cryptic Law unkenned by wit of Time ? As a spent thought the passive dead hath known Are the rapt longings of thy care sublime: Ah Self! — ah shred of being, nature strown! How barren as the echo of my rime! 30 POEMS Cecile, to tKtee ^yiTHOIJ who wert once my friend, ^^ Before estrangement did our faith bereave And bane the rose-hung brow with leaves of ruth, And shadow in a hue of dawnless eve. The hope-wrought vestiture of lulKng youth, How could we comprehend ? Thou who wert once my friend. Shall Joy forestall Regret's deploring knell ? Shall Peace, prophetic, tell of Friendship's bier ? O alien years, so beautiful your spell. Illusive, barren, tearful though your sphere, How could Love comprehend ? Thou who wert once my friend, Time cobwebs every eye, and fluting birds And merry tryst wane. Lo, our seat of fern Umber with stormcast leaves! Let Memory's words Lead thee, Cecile. — Hush! — Thou wilt not return : Alas! we comprehend. 31 POEMS ^filters; i[lJl[Y dearest blossoms of the yeartime hold Jl ^' Scant eulogy, save wandering children's meed — All scentless, plain, a rustic autumn weed. Along the fields* rude verges they unfold. Fair breadths of stars revealed in sea and stream Record their numbers, zoned with purple fringe — As though September draped in aster tinge. Serenely opulent, reclined in dream. They are a pictured revery of hours Outlived in space — but not, ah! not in soul — Of blest romance, the blithe autumnal stroll, The buoyant, sheeny fleece of thistle flowers. The cricket's genial clangor, and the bland. Beguiling atmosphere that graced the world And smiled among the aster blows which purled Brook, field and coppice with a purple strand: 32 POE MS My heart retained a spray for .Memory's palm — Dear Aster Blossom! dearest of the year. All scentless, plain, I laud thee autumn's peer Of summer's Eden bloom and Eden balm. ss POEMS |APPY New Year and Godspeed! " Hailed my merry friend — "Hope, and song, and bloom thy meed!" Smiled my careless friend — "Dream with May's Elysian thrush Where prophetic orchards flush, With cicadas' heyday round Where the vales are corn-embrowned: Happy New Year and Godspeed!" Hailed my winsome friend. "Peaceful be the Olden Year," Spake my pensive friend — "Mildewed not by Memory's tear!" Sighed my way-wise friend — "Hope is beautiful to know When the daffodillies blow — Love is Peace, be song or moan, Festal rose or grave- weed lone: Peaceful be the Olden Year," Spake my peerless friend. 34 WB POEMS HERE the brook has silent birth, In a coverture of cresses. Mint perfumes the vernal bound Of its limpid well; Violets, windflowers tuft the earth. And the shadbush bloom's recesses Hold the gay melodious round Trysting sparrows tell. On the field brook's summer marge, Fair with sunny harebell weaving. Dews reveal the silken grace Of the primrose wand; Ruddy lilies, freckled, large. Bide anear the russet sheaving — ^Bee, wren, cricket interlace Blossom, vine and frond. 35 POEMS On the wood brook's autumn strand Comely are the hazels yellow. Aster and the gentian low Braid its bosky side; Under mossy roots of bland Honey-tinted birches, mellow Glimpsed, the shallow's droning flow Quests the rivertide. 36 POEMS , tijje 3siftmaelite JMNTO my soul, far worn ^^i^ Upon the scornful highroad of the day, Meet is the evening's bourne And meet this bypath where the landlord's clay Halts at the surfy sand. Lonely and fair, the dusk Swathes me how clemently! — as in a husk Knit by Compassion's hand. Roamer, cast thou thy staff, Cool ease of head these tufts of spearwort lend- Ponder life's cryptograph Of being and of thee: Love's faded friend. Dives' belauded gold, Strangerhood sore of man, The creeded arrogance of churchly clan. Ever the mold — the mold. 37 POEMS Shadowy waters comb Athwart the drif tweed reef: I dream a maid Virginal, sweet — the foam Her veil — she bride of mine. — Ah! grace-delayed, Loathly to dream be fain! Quickened from foamy shroud. Thy maid would flaunt thee from the faring proud Alms and an alms' disdain. Ishmaelite art thou, Thy fusty rags by fleering bramble sped: Haply thy dingy brow Is less barbaric for the hat of shed Riband and brim — such wears. Dear in a dell of time Foregone, the acorn. — Peace! be gloss or grime, Maunder thou not thy cares. 38 POEMS Dweller nor passer-by Considers thee — goodfellowship and song Pleasure them where the eye Is like a festival and fleetly throng Gossamer follies gay: Pace thou the dreary sand. All-hail the fisher's dog that roves the strand. Sleep in the lighthouse ray. 39 POEMS QTMBROSIAL bloom with many a lauded green, K% From seed to seed, in crystal cells of pride — Sequestered all from hurt of tempest tide — Dwell Fortune's pensioners, beloved, serene. Yet aye salute the fallow's elder nook Soft-flowered, the vagrant mullein gray and prim; Greet underfoot the sorrel's ruddy trim. The clean marsh marigold by fenny brook Oozing through April grasses; welcome, pray. The deadwood lichen's vermeil crest, for lo, Unkept, unlegended, God-wrought they grpw In excellence Divine of germ and spray. Hail, herb desired! Hail, herb that men forswear! Unwise were I to sing thee, thee to scorn. Alike the shrine, O honored, O hedgeborn. Of dream-led Poesy and Wisdom fair. 40 w POEMS ! LITHE and fond — the fields were oaten sheaved — Blithe and fond where brier and hazel twine Wound we, gently trysting: unbereaved Sped the finch, soft belled the pilgrim kine Thronged in uplands mown : Welaway love's golden past! — **Nay, O ruing heart," steadfast "Nay," were Wisdom's tone. Troth and halcyon hope were my estate Ere the tears of Constancy — Ah, still Were thy tryst — though it was sorrow's gate — Thou, the harvest eve, the finch's trill, Unestranged, my own! Welaway love's golden past! — "Nay, O ruing heart," steadfast "Nay," were Wisdom's tone. 41 POEMS 'JIT^APESTRY nor bronze, macaw nor lute reside ^^ In thy chamber — lean Frugality's repose.'* Nay, blest largesses of beauty-light betide Heremidst: lo, Disdain, 'tis sovran Fancy's close! — Home and cloister mine and sovran Fancy's close Where romance is dear, unsweet the lust of pride; Bird sounds fold the roof, apart a garden blows. And I dreamful dwell, peace, hope and rime allied. 42 POEMS ©ctober 3Baj>si '^fpALL shocks, like tawny wigwams, fleck the ^ fields Of maize; athwart the sward Midfall has limned Her soul in leaf craft — lo, with frosted yields The sober earth like harlequin is trimmed! Amid the grape's dun webbing filmy spheres Of dusk and amber teem — in calm, chill tide Of woodland brook all dreamlike falls the year's Aromaed bronze of walnut heights beside : As through a bush of lavender bloom hints The pastoral farness — how, through dim delays Of glamour, like a wistful memory glints The pensive charm of these October days! 43 POEMS jFor a Pirtfjbap |fM[Y Friend, the lovely years that have been JTl thine Muse not as tearful shadows — rather shells, Beach- worn and reft of lustihood, where shrine Fair histories and Beauty's echo dwells. O may the day thy years far interlace — Each be a germ of peace and widening boon, As when by twilit birth a crescent's grace Evolves the spacious charm, the crowning moon ! POEMS TK O, where bushes fringe the lea >*^ Dawns the soft anemone! Mildly croons the rustic mill, Fair the sun-enameled hill Whence the cressy runnels lean Creekward all their tangly green. Where athwart an upland stone Tilts the leaching turf, unknown Hiding so, the sparrow may Through her weedy gate survey Peace and beauty far infold Hill, and stream, and April wold. 45 POEMS gesiterebe ^^ESTEREVE we oared where pearly birch, ^0^ Feigning moonlight,wreathed the island shade: Gilt with buoyant thistle birds the glade. Droned the brook along its haven search — Balm and flush clad all the summer glade Yestereve. Yestereve — ah! gentle, gentle time — Virgin's-bower veiled the mooring tree Where I breathed, "Sweet Nora, I love thee:" Shoreland bells afar, like mellow rime. Trailed sweet Nora's answer, "I love thee," Yestereve. 46 POEMS JHirror ^icturesJ aRT were weak to limn the shadows that entwine Mid yon mirror plane's simplicity of range Where — athwart a disk ellipsed with ebon vine, Moth, pomegranate, scroll, in boss and purfle strange — Tints, and forms, and shifts a harmony of change. Spirit-provinced there, emerge and onward wane Eastward, westward sails, gray volumed all and fair — Woodlands bourgeon soft beyond a grass domain Shot with April bloom where brawny herds repair — Thrifty furrows blend — and blend, of morrows there. 47 POEMS Swath and lusty sheaf — a wilding rivulet Hedged with tulip hues of autumn — where the lea Dimples, alder twig in carmine coronet — Past the vesp'er moon day purpling toward the sea: Art were weak to limn yon mirror's imagery. 48 POEMS Ctjerntore ^istJing ^|XRIEF wendeth sighing V^ Past the glad province of Felicity — Unto the wastes of Dolor wendeth she. Evermore sighing. Fair are the fields this goodly Lammas morn. Meadow larks chime with many a dulcet bee, Maylike the green rill veins the russet shorn Wheat — and past wendeth Grief all drearily. Evermore sighing. Listing the ashen turtle's knelling croon. Heartsease bestead of Autumn snows to see. Graves, gray and rain-worn, desolate as the moon. Meet were for Grief who wendeth prayerfully. Evermore sighing. Prayerful and seeking that unworldly close, Solemn, reclusive, where the perished be. Thither to bear her friend's memorial rose — Kind, blessed Grief, alas! I wend with thee. Evermore sighing. 49 DFl One Qopy del. to Cat. Div.