The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan :: :: University of Virginia Library

Stars in heaven with gentle faces,
Can ye see and keep your places?
Flowers that on the old earth blossom,
Can ye hang on such a bosom?
Canst thou wander on for ever
Through a world so sad, O River?
O ye fair things 'neath the sun,
Can ye bear what Man hath done?

This is Earth. Heaven glimmers yonder.
Pause a little space and ponder!

Day by day the fair world turneth
Dewy eyes to heaven and yearneth,
Day by day the mighty Mother
Sees her children smite each other.
She moans, she pleads, they do not hear her—
She prays-the skies seem gathering near her—
Yearning down diviner, bluer,
Baring every star unto her,—
Each strange light with swinging censer
Sweeter seeming and intenser,—
Yet she ceaseth not her cry,
Seeing how her children die.

On her bosom they are lying,
Clinging to her, dead and dying—
Dead eyes frozen in imploring
Yonder heaven they died adoring,

344

Dying eyes that upward glimmer
Ever growing darker, dimmer;
And her eyes, too, thither turning,
Asking, praying, weeping, yearning,
Search the blue abysses, whither
He who made her, brought her hither,
Gave her children, bade them grow,
Vanished from her long ago.

Ah, what children! Father, see them!
Never word of hers may free them—
Never word of love may win them.
For there burneth fierce within them
Fire of thine; soul-sick and sinning,
As they were in the beginning,
Here they wander. Father, see!
Generations born of Thee!

Blest was Earth when on her bosom
First she saw the double blossom,
Double sweetness, man and woman,
One in twain, divine and human,
Leaping, laughing, crying, clinging,
To the sound of her sweet singing—
Flesh like lily and rose together,
Eyes as blue as April weather,
Golden hair with golden shadows,
In the face the light of meadows,
In the eyes the dim soul peeping
Like the sky in water sleeping.
‘Guard them well!’ the Father said,
Set them in her arms,—and fled.

Countless worlds around Him yearning,
Vanish'd He from her discerning;—
Then she drooped her fair face, seeing
On her breast each gentle being:
And unto her heart she prest them,
Raised her look to heaven and blest them;
And the fountains leapt around her,
Leaves and flowers shot up and crown'd her,
Flowers bloom'd and streams ran gleaming.
Till with bliss she sank to dreaming;—
And the darkness for a cover
Gently drew its veil above her,
And the new-born smiled reposing,
And a million eyes unclosing
Yearn'd through all the veil to see
That new fruit of mystery.

Father! come from the abysses;
Come, Thou light the Mother misses;
Come; while hungry generations
Pass away, she sits in patience.
Of the children Thou didst leave her,
Millions have been born to grieve her.
See! they gather, living, dying,
Coming, going, multiplying;
And the Mother, for the Father,
Though like waves they rise and gather,
Though they blossom thick as grasses,
Misses every one that passes,
Flashes on them peace and light
Of a love grown infinite.

Father! see them: hath each creature
Something in him of Thy nature?
Born of Thee and of no other,
Born to Thee by a sweet Mother,
Man strikes man, and brother brother.
Hearts of men from Thy heart fashioned
Bleed and anguish bloody-passion'd;
Beast-like roar the generations;
Tiger-nations spring on nations;
Though the stars yearn downward nightly,
Though the days come ever brightly,
Though to gentle holy couches
Death in angel's guise approaches,
Though they name Thee, though they woo Thee,
Though they dream of, yearn unto Thee,
Ill they guess the guise Thou bearest,
Ill they picture Thee, Thou Fairest;—
Come again, O Father wise,
Awe them with those loving eyes!

Stars in heaven with tender faces,
Can ye see and keep your places?
Flowers that on the Earth will blossom,
Can ye deck so sad a bosom?
Canst thou singing flow for ever
Through a world so dark, O River?
Father, canst Thou calmly scan
All that Man hath made of Man?