JAPAN REFERENCE 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 -<y 
 
 N EW YORK 
 
U. S. Government 
 Co ator of In! 
 
 1 B R A H Y 
 
ODE 
 
 THE MIKADO OF JAPAN 
 
 First of thy race — first of thy nation's Kings ! 
 
 Who see'st and weigh 'st the world by reason's light, 
 
 Not judging by old Custom's siglit, - 
 But by the rolling tide of men and things, — 
 Thou may'st sow broad-cast o'er thy brilliant land 
 
 New thoughts and hopes as glowing as thine own, 
 Burying grim Idols in thy deep sea-sand, 
 
 That men may kneel at shrines from slavery won. 
 Those slaveries of soul, designed 
 
 By the close-veil'd mysterious power 
 
 Which Priest-craft bred for Thee, and all, 
 By thine own sceptre fall ! 
 
 Their depths thy piercing brain hath counter-mined 
 The fabric sinks in one black thunder-shower — 
 
 And Life's expanding wings flame up behind ! 
 
ODE TO THE MIKADO OE JAPAN. 
 
 The mind of man 
 Once open'd, claims a boundless span ; 
 
 Thou canst no more 
 
 Contract its shore 
 Than make a flood-tide ebb at thy command. 
 
 Take then thy stand 
 On Nature's constant love and youth, 
 
 Her heart and truth ; — 
 
 And thy resolve to search and weigh 
 All creeds that ferment 'neath this pregnant day, 
 
 Then choose the loftiest — hold thou fast, 
 
 And thy rare-flowered crown shall ever last 
 In star-like record when its bloom hath passed ! 
 
 in. 
 
 There was a Dome, like midnight 
 Lit up by blood-red lightning ! 
 And deep within 
 A demon din, — 
 With many a sight 
 Of ghastly horror whitening 
 Faces and forms, e'en while the flames were brightening ! 
 The screams of those wild massacres 
 Long echoed down the shuddering years ; 
 And yet we know the self-same creed 
 For which those proselyting martyrs died, 
 Hath caused unnumbered victims thus to bleed 
 Before its symbols deified ! 
 0, Great Creative Spirit ! 
 Can man inherit 
 

 ODE TO THE MIKADO OF JAPAN. 
 
 Thine linage, yet disgrace it — 
 Distort and half erase it, 
 Till Nature scarce can trace it, 
 While to such night-dreams crowd on crowd, 
 
 Sheep — swine — and sages — 
 Pray secretly, or fierce and loud, 
 Blasting a land for ages ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 Heap'd clouds at noon ! 
 Night's high festoon ! 
 The piled-up books of the Tycoon 
 Were like the mountains of the moon ! 
 Glorious to dream of — but to climb 
 Impossible, or to divine, 
 Grow grapes on, olives, or to mine, 
 Or put to any use of human time ! 
 
 But thou, Mikado, thou hast spoken 
 A new word — and all locks are broken ! 
 The gates gape wide — 
 The rising tide 
 BriDgs minds of every nation side by side ; 
 
 And secrets deep as Southern skies, 
 In chronicles, porcelain, metals, woods, silks, dyes, 
 Steel, ivory, garden-beds — and lies 
 Of mortal Pagods, meet all eyes ! 
 
 Deal with us — and believe that we 
 Deal honestly \ 
 
 JAPAN REFERENCE 
 LIBRARY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
ODE TO THE MIKADO OF JAPAN. 
 
 Be friendly, as you find us friends, — 
 Each having his own ends, 
 
 Frankly and openly ! 
 Beware of Hell-born War ! 
 Earth's branding scar 
 Through History ! 
 Degrading man the beast beneath, 
 Who wars but from necessity, 
 And builds no Glory on his fellows' death ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 Wise Sovereign ! who hath sent from dazzling seas 
 
 Thy Envoys to far- distant shores, 
 Be thou not dazzled by the swarming bees — ■ 
 Their human hives and stores ! 
 Their armies, ships, magnificence — 
 Nor by each fine Court-eloquence ; — 
 But note what hath been won 
 'Midst a few sands, called ' years,' 
 From Earth's inexhaustible wonders ! — from the Sun !- 
 From man's soul-swaddling fears ! — 
 By Intellect and Science, and the Will 
 To know what can be known, while yearning still 
 Up tow'rds the vision'd foot-stool of God's throne ! 
 
 VII. 
 
 Mikado ! be not sudden to conceive 
 
 Love — hatred — or indifference — 
 But each illuminated tome receive 
 
 Which Europe old, or young America, 
 
ODE TO THE MIKADO OF JAPAN. 
 
 Before thee proudly may lay bare, — 
 Cross-questioning each by generous Common-sense ; 
 As one who searching many a beach, 
 Selects and stores the best from each. 
 Thus act — and in futurity 
 Thy country's rational idol thou wilt be ; 
 The ancient splendours of Japan 
 Will dwindle to a painted fan, 
 And the rich flowers of all her Kings, 
 Beside thy fruits, be childish things ! 
 
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