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87
BOOK THIRD
89
CANTO I
I
Of all fair trees to look upon,Of all trees “pleasant to the sight,”
Give me the Poet's tree of white—
Pink cherry trees of blest Nippon
With lovers passing to and fro—
Pink cherry lanes of Tokio:
Ten thousand cherry trees and each
Hung white with Poet's plaint and speech.
II
Of all fair lands to look upon,To feel, to breathe, at Orient dawn,
I count this baby land the best,
Because here all things rest and rest
And all men love all things most fair
And beautiful and rich and rare;
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With treasures laden, brown with bees.
III
Of all loved lands to look upon,Give me this love land of Nippon,
Its bright, brave men, its maids at prayer,
Its peace, its carelessness of care.
IV
A mobile sea of silver mistSweeps up for morn to mount upon:
Then yellow, saffron, amethyst—
Such changeful hues has blest Nippon!
See but this sunrise, then forget
All scenes, all suns, all lands save one,
Just matin sun and vesper sun;
This land of inland seas of light;
This land that hardly recks of night.
V
The vesper sun of blest NipponSinks crimson in the Yellow Sea:
The purple butterfly is gone,
The rainbow bird housed in his tree—
Hushed, as the last loved, trembling note
Still thrills his tuneful Orient throat—
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Waits morn to waken and command.
VI
Fast homeward bound, brown, busy feetIn wooden shoon clang up the street;
But not through all the thousand year
In Buddha's temple may you hear
One step, see hue of sun or sea,
Though wait you through eternity:
All is so still, so soft, subdued—
The very walls are hueless hued.
VII
Behold brown, kneeling penitents!What perfumed place of silent prayer!
Burned Senko-ho, sweet frankincense!
And hear what silence everywhere!
Pale, pensive priests pass here and there
And silent lisp with bended head
The Golden Rule on scrolls of gold
As gentle, ancient Buddhists read
These precepts sacred unto them,
And watched the world grow old, so old,
Ere yet the Babe of Bethelehem.
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VIII
How leaps the altar's forky flame!How dreamful, dense, the sweet incense,
As pale priests burn, in Buddha's name,
Red-written sins of penitents—
Mute penitents with bended head
And unsaid sins writ deep in red.
IX
Now slow a priest with staff and scroll,Barefoot, as mendicant, and old—
You sudden start, you lift your head,
You hear and yet you do not hear,
A sound, a song, so sweet, so dear
It well might waken yonder dead.
His staff has touched the sacred bowl
Of copper, silver, shot with gold
And wrought so magic-like of old
That all sweet sounds, or east or west,
Sought this still hollow where to rest.
Hear, hear the voice of Buddha's bell,
Bonsho-no-oto! All is well!
X
And you, you, lean, lean low to hear:You doubt your ears, you doubt your eyes,
Your hand is lifted to your ear,
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The melody may die—it dies—
Dies as the swan dies, as the sun
Dies, bathed in dewy benison.
XI
It lives again; you breathe again!What cadences that speak, that stir,
Take form and presence, as of her
Whom first you loved, ere yet of men.
It utters essence as a sound;
As Santalum sends from the ground
For devotee and worshipper
Where saints lie buried, balm and myrrh.
XII
But now so low, so faint, so lowYou lean to hear yet hardly hear.
Again your hand is to your ear,
Your lips are parted, leaning so,
And now again you catch your breath!
Such breath as when you lie becalmed
At sea, and sudden start to feel
A cooling wave and quickened keel
And see your tall sail court the shore.
You hear, you more than hear, you feel,
As when the white wave shimmereth.
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An essence of some song embalmed,
Long hidden in the house of death—
You breathe it, as your Lady's breath!
XIII
Now low, so low, so soft, so still,As when a single leaf is stirred,
As when some doubtful matin bird
Dreams russet morning decks his hill—
Then nearer, clearer, lilts each note
And longer, stronger, swells each wave—
Ten thousand dead have burst the grave,
An angel's song in every throat!
The forky flame turns and returns
To burn and burn red sins away;
Such incense on the altar burns
As some may breathe but none may say,
Though cherished to their dying day.
XIV
And now the sandaled pilgrims fallWith faces to the jeweled floor—
The incense darkens as a pall,
As clouds that darken more and more.
You dare not lift your bended head—
The silence is as if the dead
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And now the Bonsho notes, the song!
So stronger now, so strong, so strong!
XV
The black smokes of the ashen urnWhere brown priests burn red sins away
Begin to stir, to start, to turn,
To seek the huge, bossed copper door—
As evil things that dare not stay.
The while the rich notes roll and roar
To drive dread, burned sin out before
Calm Dia-busta, the adored,
As cherubim with flaming sword.
XVI
And far, so far, such rich notes rollThat barefoot fishers far at sea
Fall prone and pray all silently
For wife and babes that wait the strand,
The tugging net clutched tight in hand,
The while they bow a space to pray;
For every asking, eager soul
Knows well the time and patiently
It lists, an hundred Ri away.
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XVII
The thousand pilgrims girt in strawThat press Fujame's holy peak,
Prone, fasting, penitent and meek,
Hear notes as from the stars and pray,
As we who know and keep the Law—
As we who walk Jerusalem
With pilgrim step and pallid cheek.
How earnestly they silent pray
To keep their Golden Rule alway,
To do no thing, or night or day,
Though tempted by a diadem,
They would not others do to them!
XVIII
And wee, brown wives, on high, wild steepsOf terraced rice or bamboo patch
Where toil, hard toil incessant, keeps
Sweet virtue, sweet sleep, and a thatch,
They hear and hold, with closer fold,
Their bare, brown babes against the cold.
They croon and croon, with soothing care,
To babes meshed in their mighty hair,
And loving, crooning, breathe a prayer.
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XIX
The great notes pass, pass on and on,As light sweeps up the doors of dawn,
And now the strong notes are no more,
But feebler tones wail out and cry,
As sad things that have lost their way
At night and dare not bide the day
But turn back to the shrine to die,
And steal in softly through the door
And gently fade along the floor.
XX
The barefoot priest slow fades from sight,Faint and more faint the last notes fall;
You hear them now, then not at all,
And now the last note of the night
Wails out, as when a lover cries
At night, and at the altar dies.
XXI
How sweet, how sad, how piteous sweetThis last note at the bowed monk's feet
That dies as dies some saintly light—
That dies so like the sweet swan dies—
So loving sad, so tearful sweet,
This last, lost note—Good night, good night.
Good night to holy Buddha's bell—
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A mist is rising to the eyes!
CANTO II
I
This water town of TokioIs as a church with priests at prayer,
With restful silence everywhere,
Or night or day, or high or low.
You sometimes hear a turtle dove,
A locust trilling from his tree
In chorus with his mated love,
May see a raven in the air,
Wide-winged and high, but even he
Is as a shadow in the stream,
As dreamful, silent as a dream.
II
They could but note the silent maidsThat carried, with a mother's care,
The silent baby, ofttimes bare
As birthtime through their Caran shades.
Ten thousand babies, everywhere,
But not one wail, or day or night,
To put the locust's love to flight,
Or mar the chorus of the dove.
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Born soberly, born sanely, clean,
As Indian babes of old were born
Ere yet the white man's face was seen,
Ere yet the sensuous white man came;
Born clean as love, of lovelight born
Some long lost Rocky Mountain morn
Where snow-topt turrets first took flame
And flashed God's image in God's name!
III
Tell me, my flint-scarred pioneer,My skin-clad Carson, mountaineer,
Who met red Sioux, met dusk Modoc,
Red hand to hand in battle shock
Where men but met to dare and die,
Did ever you once see or hear
One poor brown Indian baby cry?
IV
The long, hot march by ashen plain,The burning trail by lava bed,
Babes lashed to back in corded pain
Until the swollen bare legs bled,
But on and on their mothers led,
If but to find a place to die.
Yet who, of all men that pursued
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By burning plain or beetling wood,
Did ever see, did ever hear,
One bleeding Indian baby cry?
V
The starving mother's breasts were dry,There scarce was time to stop and drink,
The swollen legs grew black as ink—
There was not even time to die.
And yet, through all this fifty year,
What hounding man did ever hear
One piteous Indian baby cry?
VI
Nay, they were born as men were bornFar back in Jacob's Bible morn;
Were born of love, born lovingly,
Unlike the fretful child of lust,
When love gat love and trust gat trust—
And trusting, dared to silent die
In torture and disdain a tear,
If mother willed, nor question why.
Yea, I have seen so many die,
This cruel, hard, half-hundred year,
And I have cried, to see, to hear—
But never heard one baby cry.
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VII
Shot down in Castle Rocks I layOne midnight, lay as one shot dead,
A lad, and lone, years, years of yore.
I heard deep Sacramento roar,
Saw Shasta glitter far away—
I never saw such moon before
And yet I could not turn my head,
Nor move my lips to cry or say.
Red arrows in both form and face
Held form and face tight pinned in place
Against the gnarled, black chaparral,
As one fast nailed against a wall
With scant half room to wholly fall—
The hot, thick, gurgling, gasping breath,
The thirst, the thirsting unto death!
VIII
And then a child against my feetCrawled feebly and crept close to die;
I moaned, “Oh baby, won't you cry?
'Twould be as music piteous sweet
To hear in this dread place of death
Just one lorn cry, just one sweet breath
Of life, here 'mid the moonlit dead,
The mingled dead, white men and red.
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IX
“Oh bleeding, blood-red baby, cryJust once before I, choking, die!
And maybe some white man will hear
In yonder fortressed camp anear
And bring blest drink for you and I—
Oh, baby, please, please, baby, cry!”
X
A crackling in the chaparralAnd then a lion in the clear
From which the dying babe had crept,
Swift as a yellow sunbeam, leapt
And stood so tall, so near, so near!
So cruel near, so sinuous, tall—
Some Landseer's picture on a wall.
XI
I never saw such length of limb,Such arm as God had given him!
His paws, they swallowed up the earth,
His midnight eyes shot arrows out
The while his tail whipped swift about—
His tail was surely twice his girth!
XII
His nostrils wide with smell of bloodReached out above us where he stood
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Till half his yellow teeth were bare.
His yellow length was bare and lank—
I never saw such hollow flank;
'Twas as a grave is, as a pall,
A flabby black flank—scarce at all!
XIII
He sudden quivered, tail to jaws,Crouched low, unsheathed his shining claws—
“Oh, baby, baby, won't you cry,
Just once before we two must die?”
I felt him spring, clutch up, then leap
Swift down the rock-built, broken steep;
I heard a crunch of bones, but I—
I did not hear that baby cry!
CANTO III
I
I would forget—help me forget,The while we fondly linger yet
The flower-field so sweet, so sweet,
With Buddha at fair Fuji's feet.
Fair Fuji-san, throned Queen of air!
Fair woman pure as maiden's prayer;
As pure as prayer to the throne
Of God, as lone as God, as lone
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Fair Fuji-san, so more than fair!
II
Fair Fuji-san, Kamkura, andReposeful, calm Buddha the blest,
With folded hands that rest and rest
On eld Kamkura's blood-soaked sand.
Here russet apples hang at hand
So russet rich that when they fall
'Tis as if some gold-bounden ball
Sank in the loamy, warm, wet sand
Where hana, kusa, carpet earth
That never knows one day of dearth.
III
Kamkura, where Samurai bled,Where Buddha sits to rest and rest!
Was ever spot so beauteous, blest?
Was ever red rose quite so red?
IV
Fair Fuji from her mountain chineAbove her curtained courts of pine
Looks down on calm Kamkura's sea
So tranquil, dreamful, restfully
You fold your arms across your breast
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While silence musks the warm sea air—
Just silence, silence everywhere.
V
Here midst this rest, this pure repose,This benediction, peace, and prayer,
That as religion was, and where
A breath of senko blessed the air,
The erstwhile children of the snows
Came silently and sat them down
Within a Kusa coigne that lay
Above the buried Bushi town,
Above the dimpled, beauteous Bay
Of sun and shadow, gold and brown,
And Care blew by the other way—
A breath, a butterfly, a fay.
VI
And one was as fair Fuji, fair,True, trusting as some maid at prayer,
Aye, one as Buddha was, but one
Was turbulent of blood and was
An instant of the earth and sun;
As when the ice-tied torrent thaws
And sudden leaps from frost and snow
Headlong and lawless, far below—
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And warms the wind-tost mango tree.
VII
He caught her hand, he pressed her side,He pressed her close and very close,
He breathed her as you breathe a rose,
Nor was in any wise denied.
Her comely, shapely limbs pushed out
As elden on her golden shore;
Her long, strong arms reached round about
And bent along the flowered floor,
While full length on her back she lay
Like some wild, beauteous beast at play.
VIII
He thrust him forward, caught her, caughtHer form as if she were of naught.
His outstretched face was as a flame,
His breath was as a furnace is,
He kissed her mouth with such mad kiss
Her rich, full lips shut tight with shame.
IX
As one of old who tilled the mould,Took triple strength from earth and thrust
His burly foeman to the dust,
She sprang straight up, and springing threw
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Knew not how he might, writhing, rise,
Or dare to meet again those eyes
That seemed to burn him through and through;
Or daring, how could he undo
His coward, selfish deed of shame
Enforced as in religion's name?
And she so trustful, so alone!
'Twas as if some sweet, sacred nun
Had opened wide her door to one
Who slew her on her altar stone.
X
She passed and silent passed and slow.What strength, what length of limb, what eyes!
She left him lying low, so low,
So crested and so surely slain
He deemed he never more might rise,
Or rising, see her face again.
And yet, her look was not of hate,
But pity, as akin to pain;
And when she touched the temple gate
She paused, turned, beckoned he should go,
Go wash his hands of carnal clay
And go alone his selfish way—
Forever, ever and a day!
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CANTO IV
I
How cold she grew, how chilled, how changed,Since that loathed scene by Nippon's sea!
No longer flexile, trustful, she
Held him aloof, hushed and estranged,
A fallen star, yet still her star,
And she his heaven, earth, his all,
To follow, worship, near or far,
Let good befall or ill befall.
But he was silent. He had sold
His birthright, sold for even less
Than any poor, cheap pottage mess,
His right to speak forth, warm and bold,
And look her unshamed in the face.
Mute, penitent, he kept his place,
As silent as that Nippon saint
That knew not prayer, praise, or plaint.
II
Saint Silence seems some maid of prayer,God's arm about her when she prays
And where she prays and everywhere,
Or storm-strewn or sun-down days.
What ill to Silence can befall,
Since Silence knows no ill at all?
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III
Saint Silence seems some twilight skyThat leans as with her weight of stars
To rest, to rest, no more to roam,
But rest and rest eternally.
She loosens and lets down the bars,
She brings the kind-eyed cattle home,
She breathes the fragrant field of hay
And heaven is not far away.
IV
The deeps of soul are still the deepsWhere stately Silence ever keeps
High court with calm Nirvana, where
No shallows break the noisy shore
Or beat, with sad, incessant roar,
The fettered, fevered world of care
As noisome vultures fret the air.
V
The star-sown seas of thought are still,As when God's plowmen plant their corn
Along the mellow grooves at morn
In patient trust to wait His will.
The star-sown seas of thought are wide,
But voiceless, noiseless, deep as night;
Disturb not these, the silent seas
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As golden poppies unto bees.
Here, from the first, rude giants wrought,
Here delved, here scattered stars of thought
To grow, to bloom in years unborn,
As grows the gold-horned yellow corn.
VI
They lay low-bosomed on the bayOf Honolulu, soft the breeze
And soft the dreamful light that lay
On Honolulu's Sabbath seas—
The ghost of sunshine gone away—
Red roses on the dust of day,
Pale, pink, red roses in the west
Where lay in state dead Day at rest.
VII
Their dusky boatman set his faceFrom out the argent, opal sea
Tow'rd where his once proud, warlike race
Lay housed in everlasting dust.
He sang low-voiced, sad, silently,
In listless chorus with the tide,
Because his race was not, because
His sun-born race had dared, defied
The highest, holiest of His laws
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Died stricken of dread leprosy
Begot of lust—prone in the dust—
Degenerating love to lust.
VIII
Sweet sandal-wood burned bow and sternIn colored, shapely crates of clay;
Sweet sandal-wood long laid away,
Long caverned with dead battle kings
Whose dim ghosts rise betimes and burn
The torch and touch sweet taro strings—
Such giant, stalwart, stately kings!
IX
Sweet sandal-wood, long ages tornFrom cloud-capt steeps where thunders slept,
Then hidden where dead giants kept
Their sealed Walhalla, waiting morn—
Deep-hidden, till such sweet perfume
Betrayed their long-forgotten tomb.
X
The sea's perfume and incense layAbout, above, lay everywhere;
The sea swung incense through the air—
The censer, Honolulu's Bay.
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As sad, as if dead kings kept tune.
XI
The moon hung twilight from each horn,Soft, silken twilight, soft to touch
As baby lips—and over much
Like to the baby breath of morn.
Huge, five-horned stars swung left and right
O'er argent, opal, amber night.
XII
What changeful, dreamful, ardent light,When Mauna Loa, far afield,
Uprose and shook his yellow shield
Below the battlements of night;
Below the Southern Cross, o'er seas
That sang such silent symphonies!
XIII
Far lava peaks still lit the night,Like holy candles foot and head,
That dimly burned above the dead,
Above the dead and buried Light.
There rose such perfume of the sea,
Such Sabbath breath, soft, silently,
As when some burning censer swings,
As when some surpliced choir sings.
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XIV
He scarce had lived save in such fear,But now yon mitered tongues of flame
That tipped the star-lit lava peak
Brought back some fervor to his cheek
And made him half forget his shame.
He could but heed, he could but hear
That call across the walls of night
From triple mitered tongues of Light,
That soulful, silent, perfumed night.
He said—and yet he said no word;
No word he said, yet all she heard,
So close their souls lay, in such Light,
That holy Honolulu night.
XV
“Lies yonder Nebo's mount, my Soul?—The Promised Land beyond, beyond
The grave of rest, the broken bond,
Where manly force must lose control,
Must press the grapes and fill the bowl,
Go round and round, rest, rise up, eat,
Tread grapes, then wash the wearied feet?
XVI
“I know I have enough of bliss,I know full well I should not dare
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This scene, your presence, this soft air,
This incense, this deep sense of rest
Where long-sought, sweet Arcadia lies
Against these gates of Paradise.
XVII
“And yet, hear me, I dare ask more.Lone Adam had all Paradise
And still how poor he was, how poor,
With all things his beneath the skies!
Aye, sweet it were to roam or rest,
To ever rest and ever roam
As you might reck and reckon best;
But still there comes a sense of home,
Of hearthstone, happy babes at play,
And you and I—not far away.
XVIII
“Nay, do not turn aside your face—‘Be fruitful ye and multiply’
Meant all; it meant the human race,
And he or she shall surely die
Despised and pass to nothingness
Who does not love the little dress,
The heaven in the mother's eyes,
The holy, sacred, sweet surprise
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With face laid blushing to his breast.
XIX
“How flower-like the little frock—The daffodil forerunning spring—
The doll-like shoes, socks, everything,
And each a secret, secret stored!
And yet each day the little hoard,
As careful merchants note their stock,
Is noted with such happy care
As only angel mothers share.
XX
“At last to hear her rock and rock—Behold her bowed Madonna face!
She lifts her baby from its place,
Pulls down the crumpled, dampened frock,
And never Cleopatra guessed
The queenliness, the joy, the pride,
She knows with baby to her breast—
His chub fists churning either sides!
XXI
“The bravest breast faith ever baredFor brother, country, creed or friend,
However high the aim or end,
Was that brave breast a baby shared
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The while sweet mother rocked and rocked.”
CANTO V
I
As when first blossoms feel first bees,As when the squirrel hoists full sail
And leaps his world of maple trees
And quirks his saucy, tossy tail;
As when Vermont's tall sugar trees
First feel sweet sap, then don their leaves
In haste—a million Mother Eves;
As when strange winds stir strong-built ships
Long ice-bound fast in Arctic seas,
So she, the strong, full woman now,
Felt new life thrilling breast and brow
And tingled to her finger tips.
Her limbs pushed out, outreached her head
As if to say—she nothing said.
But something of the tender light
That lit her girl face that first night,
The time she pulling poppies sat
The sod and saw the golden sheep
Safe housed within the hollowed deep,
Was hers; and how she blushed thereat!
Yet blushing so, still silent sat.
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II
She would forget his weakness, yetTry as she would, could not forget.
He knew her thought. She raised her head
And searched his soul, and searching said:
“He who would save the world must stand
Hard by the world with steel-mailed hand
And save by smiting hip and thigh.
The world needs truth, tall truth and grand,
And keen sword-cuts that thrust to kill.
The man who climbed the windy hill
To talk, is talking, climbing still,
And could not help or hurt a fly.
The stoutest swimmer and most wise
Swims somewhat with the sweeping stream,
Yet leads, leads unseen as a dream.
The strong fool breasts the flood and dies,
The weak fool turns his back and flies.”
III
He did not answer, could not dareLift his shamed eyes to her fair face,
But looked right, left, looked anywhere,
And mused, mused mutely out of place:
“If yonder creedists may not teach,
For all their books, and bravely preach
118
Gave us God's first-born, holy Light,
Why, pity, nor yet blame them quite;
Because they know not, cannot read,
Save as commanded by some creed.
What eons they may have to wait
Within their wall, without the gate,
Nor once dare lift their eyes to look
Beyond their blinding creed and book,
We know not, but we surely know
Yon lava-lifted, star-tipt height
Is bannered still by that first Light.
We know this phosphorescent glow,
At every dip of dripping oar,
Is but lost bits of Light below,
Where moves God's spirit as of yore.
Aye, here, right here, from out the night,
God spake and said: “Let there be light!”
IV
“And dare ask doubting, creed-made menWhy we so surely know and how?
Why here ‘the waters,’ now as then?
Why here ‘the waters,’ then as now?
We know because we read, yet read
So little that we much must heed.
We read: ‘God's spirit moved upon
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What waters? Why, ‘The Waters,’ these,
These soundless, silent, sundown seas.
V
“The morning of the world was here,Twas here ‘He made dry land appear,’
Here ‘Darkness lay upon the deep.’
What deep? This deep, the deepest deep
That ever rolled beneath the sun
When night and day were then as one
And dreamless day lay fast asleep,
Rocked in this cradle of the deep.”
VI
She would not, could not be deniedHer thought, her theme but turned once more,
As turns the all-devouring tide
Against a stubborn unclean shore,
With lifted face and soul aflame,
And spake as speaking in God's name—
With face raised to the living God:
“Hear me! How pitiful the plea
Of men who plead their temperance,
Of men who know not one first sense
Of self-control, yet, fire-shod,
Storm forth and rage intemperately
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Compared with their low lives of death!
VII
“And oh, for prophet's tongue or penTo scourge, not only, and accuse
The childless mother, but such men
As know their loves but to abuse!
Give me the brave, child-loving Jew,
The full-sexed Jew of either sex,
Who loves, brings forth and nothing recks
Of care or cost, as Christians do—
Dulled souls who will not hear or see
How Christ once raised his lowly head
And, all rebuking, gently said,
The while he took them tenderly,
‘Let little ones come unto me.’
VIII
“The true Jew lover keeps the Way.For clean, serene, and contrite heart
The bride and bridegroom kneel apart
Before the bridal bed and pray.
IX
“Behold how great the bride's estate!Behold how holy, pure the thought
That high Jehovah welcomes her
121
The fairest form He yet has wrought
Since Adam's clay knew breath and stir:
To glory in her daughters, sons;
To be God's tabernacle, tent,
The keeper of the covenant,
The mother of His little ones!
X
“Go forth among this homeless race,This landless race that knows no place
Or name or nation quite its own,
And see their happy babes at play,
Or palace, Ghetto, rich or poor,
As thick as birds about the door
At morn, some sunny Vermont May,
Then think of Christ and these alone.
Yet ye deride, ye jeer, ye jibe,
To see their plenteous babes; ye say
‘Behold the Jew and all his tribe!’
XI
“Yet Solomon upon his throneWas not more kingly crowned than they
These Jews, these jeered Jews of to-day—
More surely born to lord, to lead,
To sow the land with Abram's seed;
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And welcomed as the welcome morn.
XII
“Hear me this prophecy and heed!Except we cleanse us, kirk and creed,
Except we wash us, word and deed,
The Jew shall rule us, reign the Jew.
And just because the Jew is true,
Is true to nature, true to truth,
Is clean, is chaste, as trustful Ruth
Who stood amid the alien corn
In tears that far, dim, doubtful morn—
Who bore us David, Solomon—
The Babe, that far, first Christmas dawn.
XIII
“You shrink, are angered at my speech?You dare avert your doubtful face
Because I name this chaste, strange race?
So be it then; there lies the beach,
And up the beach the ways divide.
I would not leave the truth untold
To win the whole world to my side,
Nor would I spare your selfish pride,
Your carnal coarseness, lustful lie,
For that would be to let you die.
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For seamen, souls sea-tost at night.
XIV
“I see the spiked Agave's plume,The pepsin's plum, acacia's bloom
Far up beyond tall cocoa trees,
Tall tamarind and mango brown,
That gird the pretty, peaceful town.
That lane leads up, the church looks down—
There lie the ways, now which of these?
Bear with me, I must dare be true.
The nation, aye, the Christian race,
Now fronts its stern Sphynx, face to face,
And I must say, say here to you,
What'e'er the cost of love, of fame,
The Christian is a thing of shame—
Must say because you prove it true,
The better Christian is the Jew.
XV
“I know you scorn the narrow deedsOf men who make their god of creeds—
Yon men as narrow as the miles
That bank their rare, sweet flower-fed isles,
But come, my Lost Star, come with me
To yon fond church, high-built and fair,
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Or Arctic snow or argent sea.”
XVI
He looked far up the mango laneBelow the wide-boughed banyan tree;
He looked to her, then looked again,
As one who tries yet could not see
But one steep, narrow, upward way:
“You said two ways, here seems but one,
Or set of moon or rise of sun,
But one way to the perfect day,
And I will go. And you must stay?”
She looked far up the steep of stone
And said: “Aye, go, but not alone.”
XVII
The boat's prow pushed the cocoa shore,The man spake not, but, leaning o'er,
Strong-armed, he drew her to his side
And was not anywise denied.
He pointed to the failing fire,
That still tipt lava peak and spire,
While stars pinned round the robe of night;
'Twas here God said, “Let there be Light!”
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XVIII
A little church, a lava wall,A soft light looking gently down,
The Light of Christ, the second light,
Where two as one passed up the town.
She gave her hand, she gave her all,
And said, as such brave women might,
With ample right, in hallowed cause:
“As it in the beginning was,
So let the man-child be full born
Of Love, of Light, the Light of Morn!”
| Light | |