 | [Poems by Hovey in] Last songs from Vagabondia |  |
10
DAY AND NIGHT
(Read at the Sixty-sixth Annual Convention of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, at Cornell University, 1899.)
Fair college of the quiet inland lake
And beautiful fair name that like a bell
Rings out its clear sheer call of joy, Cornell!—
Its call of high undaunted dares that take
The hearts of men with fervours for thy sake
And for thy sake with sudden hopes that swell,
Hail first to thee, with praise for thy bold youth,
Thy fearless challenge in the ranks of truth,
Thy forward footing into the unknown!
The new in knowledge that is old in being
Wrenched from the dark and morninged for our seeing—
This is the legend on thy banners blown.
And beautiful fair name that like a bell
Rings out its clear sheer call of joy, Cornell!—
Its call of high undaunted dares that take
11
And for thy sake with sudden hopes that swell,
Hail first to thee, with praise for thy bold youth,
Thy fearless challenge in the ranks of truth,
Thy forward footing into the unknown!
The new in knowledge that is old in being
Wrenched from the dark and morninged for our seeing—
This is the legend on thy banners blown.
Mightier the foes yet that are still to smite,
And fiercer yet the fields we still must fight,
But thou, a David of the sunrise cause,
In the first dawn of the defiant day,
Startled the mumbling hosts that bar the way—
Thou, a young Spartan of the days to be,
Made the vast hordes of Persian darkness pause
And bade our band think of Thermopylæ.
And fiercer yet the fields we still must fight,
But thou, a David of the sunrise cause,
In the first dawn of the defiant day,
Startled the mumbling hosts that bar the way—
Thou, a young Spartan of the days to be,
Made the vast hordes of Persian darkness pause
And bade our band think of Thermopylæ.
Day—yes, the day for thee! but all we men
Are twofold, having need of day and night.
Day for the mind, the ardour of the fight,
Night for the soul and silence. So again
To thee I turn, O one of many stars
That make the loyal heaven glorious
But dear among the innumerable to us,
Psi Upsilon, and resting from the scars
Of day, the brunt of battle, lift thy song,
“Now for the joys of night!”—they sing it still
In the old chapters where we had our fill
Of fun and fellowship and frank good will,
I and my fellows, when we too were young.
“Soft as a dream of beauty”—hark, again!
Here 's to his right good health who sang that strain!
Are twofold, having need of day and night.
Day for the mind, the ardour of the fight,
Night for the soul and silence. So again
To thee I turn, O one of many stars
That make the loyal heaven glorious
But dear among the innumerable to us,
Psi Upsilon, and resting from the scars
Of day, the brunt of battle, lift thy song,
“Now for the joys of night!”—they sing it still
In the old chapters where we had our fill
Of fun and fellowship and frank good will,
I and my fellows, when we too were young.
“Soft as a dream of beauty”—hark, again!
Here 's to his right good health who sang that strain!
12
Come with me into the night—
The intimate embracing night!
The night is still;
And we may walk from hill to hill
Silent, with but the murmur of our souls,
As through the woods the murmur of the night.
—Ah, take your heaven of undying light,
Of glare of gold and glint of aureoles!
I think God keeps for us somewhere
A place of cool dusks and caressing air,
Where all the greens and yellows dream of blue
And all the rainbow hints itself in hue
But never speaks outright,—
Never unveils
The unmistakable red or violet,
But lets all colour die to a perfume.
The intimate embracing night!
The night is still;
And we may walk from hill to hill
Silent, with but the murmur of our souls,
As through the woods the murmur of the night.
—Ah, take your heaven of undying light,
Of glare of gold and glint of aureoles!
I think God keeps for us somewhere
A place of cool dusks and caressing air,
Where all the greens and yellows dream of blue
And all the rainbow hints itself in hue
But never speaks outright,—
Never unveils
The unmistakable red or violet,
But lets all colour die to a perfume.
Is it the flapping of sails
And the lurch of a jibing boom
Where a boat comes round, below, on the lake, to set
Off shore again? How clear,
Like the league-distant hills that seem so near
In the thin air of Colorado, rise
The voices of the merry-making crew
Over the waters,—songs of love that strew
The silence with the roses of surmise!
And the lurch of a jibing boom
Where a boat comes round, below, on the lake, to set
Off shore again? How clear,
Like the league-distant hills that seem so near
In the thin air of Colorado, rise
The voices of the merry-making crew
Over the waters,—songs of love that strew
The silence with the roses of surmise!
Hark!
There is no sound beneath the sky
But sails that flap and oars that feather
And the low water whispering by
In the June weather.
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
But sails that flap and oars that feather
And the low water whispering by
In the June weather.
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
13
The starlight lies upon the lake
Like dreams of vanished days and viewless
Earth never shall recall awake,—
The dim lost Thules!
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
Like dreams of vanished days and viewless
Earth never shall recall awake,—
The dim lost Thules!
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
The soft wind stirs among the firs,
The great stars wait above and seek not;
The night is full of ministers
For souls that speak not.
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
The great stars wait above and seek not;
The night is full of ministers
For souls that speak not.
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
I wonder whether you and I
Are real, love—I wonder whether!
I only know that, live or die,
We dream together.
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
Are real, love—I wonder whether!
I only know that, live or die,
We dream together.
My love and I,
My love and I,
My love and I together!
Far, so far—
The song dies on the waters like a star
That founders in the surges of the dawn.
The song dies on the waters like a star
That founders in the surges of the dawn.
Ah, the great Night!
The far phantasmal Night!
The delicate dim aisles and domes of dream!
Loosed from the mind, set free
From thought and memory,
The soul goes naked into the vast stream
Of musing spirit like a careless Faun,—
The soul lies naked to the summer night.
The far phantasmal Night!
The delicate dim aisles and domes of dream!
Loosed from the mind, set free
From thought and memory,
The soul goes naked into the vast stream
14
The soul lies naked to the summer night.
Night of the clasped hands of comrades! Night of the kiss
Of lovers trembling at love's mysteries!
Night of desire!
Night of the gaslight-necklaced city! Night
Of revel and laughter and delight!
Night of the starlit Sea!
Night of the waves shot with strange witch-fire!
Night of sleep!
Night of dream!
Night of the lonely soul under the stars!
Of lovers trembling at love's mysteries!
Night of desire!
Night of the gaslight-necklaced city! Night
Of revel and laughter and delight!
Night of the starlit Sea!
Night of the waves shot with strange witch-fire!
Night of sleep!
Night of dream!
Night of the lonely soul under the stars!
But ever the self put away
With the day,
And the soul soaring, glorying into the night!
With the day,
And the soul soaring, glorying into the night!
Night!
The masked mysterious Night!
The infinite unriddled beautiful Witch!
The Sibyl of the universal Doom!
The masked mysterious Night!
The infinite unriddled beautiful Witch!
The Sibyl of the universal Doom!
This is the joy of man's spirit—
When peace falls,
Unknown, undivined, inexplicable,
Over the face of the world.
When peace falls,
Unknown, undivined, inexplicable,
Over the face of the world.
Oh, praise for the glory of battle—the Day and its strife!
And praise for the sweat and the struggle, the turmoil of life!
But the work is not wrought for the working, increase for increase;
We toil for the rest that comes after, we battle for peace.
Let us take up our work every man, meet our fate with a cheer—
But the best is the clasped hands of comrades, when nightfall is near,
The best is the rest and the friendship, the calm of the soul
When the stars are in heaven and the runner lies down at the goal.
And praise for the sweat and the struggle, the turmoil of life!
But the work is not wrought for the working, increase for increase;
15
Let us take up our work every man, meet our fate with a cheer—
But the best is the clasped hands of comrades, when nightfall is near,
The best is the rest and the friendship, the calm of the soul
When the stars are in heaven and the runner lies down at the goal.
Let us take up our work as a nation, the work of the day,
Clasp hands with our brothers of England—and who shall say nay?
And who shall say nay to our navies—the ships of us, sons of the Sea?
And who shall say nay to our Empires, to the Law that we set for the free?
But the best is the bond that's between us, the bond of the brothers in blood,
The bond of the men who keep silence, as the night when it falls on the flood,
As the night when it falls on the vastness, the splendour and lone of the wave,
The bond of the English forever, the bond of the free and the brave!
Clasp hands with our brothers of England—and who shall say nay?
And who shall say nay to our navies—the ships of us, sons of the Sea?
And who shall say nay to our Empires, to the Law that we set for the free?
But the best is the bond that's between us, the bond of the brothers in blood,
The bond of the men who keep silence, as the night when it falls on the flood,
As the night when it falls on the vastness, the splendour and lone of the wave,
The bond of the English forever, the bond of the free and the brave!
And at last when the bugles are silent or call but to rouse
A cheer for the memory of crowned and victorious brows,
When the drums beat no more to the battle and, smitten in one,
The hearts of the nations uplift but one song to the sun,
When, the Law once made good for all peoples by stress of the sword,
The spent world shall rest from its wrestling, clasp hands in accord,
Then, best of all bests, in the silence that falls on man's soul,
We shall feel we are comrades and brothers from tropic to pole.
All men by the pledge of their manhood made one in the will
To achieve for all men as their fellows each conquest o'er ill,
No glory or beauty or music or triumph or mirth
If it be not made good for the least of the sons of the earth,
And the bond of all bonds shall be manhood, the right of all rights
The right to the hearts of our fellows, to the love that requites
All the strain and the pain and the fag, all the wrench of the day,
When the stars shine at last in the heavens and Night has its way.
A cheer for the memory of crowned and victorious brows,
When the drums beat no more to the battle and, smitten in one,
The hearts of the nations uplift but one song to the sun,
16
The spent world shall rest from its wrestling, clasp hands in accord,
Then, best of all bests, in the silence that falls on man's soul,
We shall feel we are comrades and brothers from tropic to pole.
All men by the pledge of their manhood made one in the will
To achieve for all men as their fellows each conquest o'er ill,
No glory or beauty or music or triumph or mirth
If it be not made good for the least of the sons of the earth,
And the bond of all bonds shall be manhood, the right of all rights
The right to the hearts of our fellows, to the love that requites
All the strain and the pain and the fag, all the wrench of the day,
When the stars shine at last in the heavens and Night has its way.
| [Poems by Hovey in] Last songs from Vagabondia | |