 | The complete poetical works of John Hay |  |
223
UNCOLLECTED PIECES
225
NARRATIVE POEMS
BENONI DUNN
I sat on a worm fence talking
With one of the Bear Creek boys,
When all the woods were ringing
With the blue jay's jubilant noise.
Prairie and timber were glorious
In the love of the hot young sun,
But a philosophic gloom possessed
The soul of Benoni Dunn.
With one of the Bear Creek boys,
When all the woods were ringing
With the blue jay's jubilant noise.
Prairie and timber were glorious
In the love of the hot young sun,
But a philosophic gloom possessed
The soul of Benoni Dunn.
“Nothin' in all this 'varsal yerth
Is like what it ort to be,
I've give up tryin' to see the nub—
It's too hefty a job fer me.
The weaker a feller's stummick may be,
The bigger his dinner, you bet,
And the more he don't care a damn for cash,
The richer he's sure to get.
Is like what it ort to be,
I've give up tryin' to see the nub—
It's too hefty a job fer me.
The weaker a feller's stummick may be,
The bigger his dinner, you bet,
And the more he don't care a damn for cash,
The richer he's sure to get.
226
“Thar's old Brads—got a pretty young wife
And the biggest house in Pike—
No chick nor child—says he's sixty-two,
But he's eighty-two more like.
I 'low God thinks it a derned good joke—
The way he tries it on—
To send a plenty of hazel-nuts
To folks with their back teeth gone.
And the biggest house in Pike—
No chick nor child—says he's sixty-two,
But he's eighty-two more like.
I 'low God thinks it a derned good joke—
The way he tries it on—
To send a plenty of hazel-nuts
To folks with their back teeth gone.
“I ort to be in Congress;
I would ef I'd went to school.
Thar's Colonel Scrubb our member
He's jest a nateral fool.
When he come here, Lord! he did n't know
Peach blow from a dogwood blossom,
And the derned galoot owned up to me
That he never seed a 'possum!
I would ef I'd went to school.
Thar's Colonel Scrubb our member
He's jest a nateral fool.
When he come here, Lord! he did n't know
Peach blow from a dogwood blossom,
And the derned galoot owned up to me
That he never seed a 'possum!
“Everything works contráry—
You never knows what to do:
Ef I sow in wheat I'll wish it was corn
Afore the fall is through.
And talk about pleasure—ef I was axed
The thing that most I love,
I'd say it's gingerbread—and that
I git the littlest uv.
You never knows what to do:
Ef I sow in wheat I'll wish it was corn
Afore the fall is through.
227
The thing that most I love,
I'd say it's gingerbread—and that
I git the littlest uv.
“What is the use of livin'
Where everything goes skew-haw,
Where you starve ef you keep the Commandments,
And hang ef you break the law.
I've give up tryin' to see the nub
Uv what we was meant to be;
The more I study, the more I don't know—
It's too hefty a job fer me.”
Where everything goes skew-haw,
Where you starve ef you keep the Commandments,
And hang ef you break the law.
I've give up tryin' to see the nub
Uv what we was meant to be;
The more I study, the more I don't know—
It's too hefty a job fer me.”
And this was the sum of the thinking
Of tall Benoni Dunn,—
While gay in weeds his cornfield laughed
In the light of the kindly sun.
Ruminant thus he maundered,
With a scowl on his tangled brow,
With gaps in his fence, and hate in his heart,
And rust on his idle plough.
Of tall Benoni Dunn,—
While gay in weeds his cornfield laughed
In the light of the kindly sun.
Ruminant thus he maundered,
With a scowl on his tangled brow,
With gaps in his fence, and hate in his heart,
And rust on his idle plough.
228
“AFTER YOU, PILOT”
Dawn gilded—over dunes of sand
That border Mobile Bay—
The fleet, which under Farragut
In expectation lay.
For ere that rising sun should set,
Full many a sailor bold
Should perish, leaving but a name
On history's page of gold.
That border Mobile Bay—
The fleet, which under Farragut
In expectation lay.
For ere that rising sun should set,
Full many a sailor bold
Should perish, leaving but a name
On history's page of gold.
Others have sung and yet shall sing
Of Farragut's renown:
How to the Hartford's maintop lashed
He gained his conqueror's crown.
Let others sing those deeds while we,
In sorrow and in pride,
Tell how one gallant gentleman
With high decorum died.
Of Farragut's renown:
How to the Hartford's maintop lashed
He gained his conqueror's crown.
Let others sing those deeds while we,
In sorrow and in pride,
Tell how one gallant gentleman
With high decorum died.
229
The Admiral came across the bar
With threescore flags in air,
The Gulf's blue mirror never glassed
A scene so sternly fair.
Over his fleet of eighteen ships
His dark eye proudly ran;
And Craven in the monitor
Tecumseh led the van.
With threescore flags in air,
The Gulf's blue mirror never glassed
A scene so sternly fair.
Over his fleet of eighteen ships
His dark eye proudly ran;
And Craven in the monitor
Tecumseh led the van.
Morgan and Gaines shot forth their fires
From either bellowing shore;
With deeper rage the fleet replied—
One thunderous, volleying roar.
But straight ahead bold Craven dashed
Upon the swelling tide,
To seek and smite the Tennessee,
The foeman's hope and pride.
From either bellowing shore;
With deeper rage the fleet replied—
One thunderous, volleying roar.
But straight ahead bold Craven dashed
Upon the swelling tide,
To seek and smite the Tennessee,
The foeman's hope and pride.
A noble quarry! Seeking her,
Most worth his knightly steel,
He recked not of the leaking death
Beneath his gliding keel.
One moment in the conning tower
He thought of loved ones dear—
Then at the black foe's lowering bulk
He bade his pilot steer.
Most worth his knightly steel,
He recked not of the leaking death
Beneath his gliding keel.
230
He thought of loved ones dear—
Then at the black foe's lowering bulk
He bade his pilot steer.
A roar, a shock, a shuddering plunge!
Full well did Craven know
No mortal skill might save his ship
Smit by that dastard blow.
The doom impending shrieked and beat
Its fatal wings so nigh
That only one might pass the stair
And one must pause, and die.
Full well did Craven know
No mortal skill might save his ship
Smit by that dastard blow.
The doom impending shrieked and beat
Its fatal wings so nigh
That only one might pass the stair
And one must pause, and die.
“After you, Pilot,” Craven said.
O words of flawless fame!
Out of that awful moment bloomed
A pure, immortal name.
The pilot passed, the hero stayed;
Within that turret's round
Met glorious death and endless life
And faith by honor crowned.
O words of flawless fame!
Out of that awful moment bloomed
A pure, immortal name.
The pilot passed, the hero stayed;
Within that turret's round
Met glorious death and endless life
And faith by honor crowned.
231
The good ship plunged to ocean's ooze.
Forth from the flood and fire
Our reverence sees that gentle soul
To kindred heaven aspire;
And marks—when Craven stands beneath
God's hero-sheltering dome—
The shade of Philip Sidney rise
And bid him welcome home.
Forth from the flood and fire
Our reverence sees that gentle soul
To kindred heaven aspire;
And marks—when Craven stands beneath
God's hero-sheltering dome—
The shade of Philip Sidney rise
And bid him welcome home.
232
SONNETS
TO THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Son of a sire whose heart beat ever trueTo God, to country, and the fireside love
To which returning, like a homing dove,
From each high duty done, he gladly flew,
Complete, yet touched by genius through and through,
The lofty qualities that made him great,
Loved in his home and priceless to the state,
By Heaven's grace are garnered up in you.
Be yours, we pray, the dauntless heart of youth,
The eye to see the humor of the game,
The scorn of lies, the large Batavian mirth;
And, past the happy, fruitful years of fame,
Of sport and work and battle for the truth,
A home not all unlike your home on earth.
Christmas Eve, 1902.
233
ATAVISM
O beauteous daughter of a mighty race!In thy fair features and thy radiant eyes—
Like bright clouds floating over brighter skies—
The shadows of a glorious past we trace.
Framed in the oval of thy perfect face
Flit the pale belles of bygone centuries;
A hint of lawgivers and jurists lies
In that pure brow where strength is wed with grace.
And looking on thy profile's symmetry
A world-famed face across my memory comes,—
'Neath the slouched hat a watching eagle's eye,
Where down the dusty line goes riding by,
With blare of trumpets and hoarse growl of drums,
Tecumseh Sherman marching to the sea.
234
TWILIGHT ON SANDUSKY MARSH
Low in the west the moon's slim crescent swings.Across the marsh the vesper breezes bear
The sounds of gloaming; from far cornfields fare
The chittering blackbirds, whose ingathering brings
The silken flutter of a myriad wings.
The wild duck's cry floats down the thickening air
As of one hunted, full of fear and care.
Sad twilight comes with dubious whisperings.
How changed from that exultant world which lay
In the wide smile of noon! The evening's shiver
Means the day's death; its thronging whispers blend
With thoughts that haunt men when their lives must end.
Another dawn may gild a fairer day,
But this day, when it dies, is gone forever.
235
SORRENTO
The mirthful gods who ruled o'er Greater GreeceCreated this fair land in some high mood
Of frolic joy; the smiling heavens brood
Over a scene soft-whelmed in jocund peace.
Gay clamors, odorous breathings never cease
From basking crag, lime grove, and olive wood;
Swart fishers sing from out the sparkling flood
Where once the syrens sang in luring ease.
The curved beach swarms with brown-skinned boys and girls
Dancing the tarantella on the sands,
Their limbs alive with music's jollity;
And ever, where the warm wave leaps and swirls
With glad embrace clasping the bowery lands,
Breaks the tumultuous laughter of the sea.
236
PÆSTUM
Two thousand years these temples have been old.Yet were they not more lovely the first day,
When o'er yon hills the young light blushed and lay
Along the tapering columns, and eve's gold
Over the Tyrrhene sea in glory rolled.
By power of truth, by beauty's royal sway,
While men, and creeds, and kingdoms pass away,
Their gift to charm and awe they calmly hold.
Beauty and truth! by that high grace divine
They force the tribute of the vassal years;
Clouds gloom, the blue wave dimples, the stars shine
To make them fairer; even Time that tears
And shames all other things, here can but bless
And beautify this crumbling loveliness.
237
THANATOS ATHANATOS
(DEATHLESS DEATH)
At eve when the brief wintry day is sped,I muse beside my fire's faint-flickering glare—
Conscious of wrinkling face and whitening hair—
Of those who, dying young, inherited
The immortal youthfulness of the early dead.
I think of Raphael's grand-seigneurial air;
Of Shelley and Keats, with laurels fresh and fair
Shining unwithered on each sacred head;
And soldier boys who snatched death's starry prize,
With sweet life radiant in their fearless eyes,
The dreams of love upon their beardless lips,
Bartering dull age for immortality;
Their memories hold in death's unyielding fee
The youth that thrilled them to the finger-tips.
238
NIGHT IN VENICE
Love, in this summer night, do you recallMidnight, and Venice, and those skies of June
Thick-sown with stars, when from the still lagoon
We glided noiseless through the dim canal?
A sense of some belated festival
Hung round us, and our own hearts beat in tune
With passionate memories that the young moon
Lit up on dome and tower and palace wall.
We dreamed what ghosts of vanished loves made part
Of that sweet light and trembling, amorous air.
I felt—in those rich beams that kissed your hair,
Those breezes, warm with bygone lovers' sighs—
All the dead beauty of Venice in your eyes,
All the old loves of Venice in my heart.
239
PEACE
AFTER STUART MERRILL
Trembling of purple banners in the fight,Wild neigh of horses in destruction's path,
Howling of trumpets answering yells of wrath,
Dim eyes where slowly fades the living light;
And on the plains, the ghastly heaped up death
O'er which the guns thunder their dull refrain;
And summer is shamed and autumn grieves in rain,
And carnage breathes abroad a hateful breath.
Back! O thou nightmare of the tired world's rest!
The Spring sees blooming at the mother's breast
Pink mouths of babes with cooing laughter rife;
While from the valley to the mountain springs,
Amid the rustle of zephyrs and of wings,
Sound, like young heart-beats, all the bells of Life.
240
LOVE'S DAWN
In wandering through waste places of the world,I met my love and knew not she was mine.
But soon a light more tender, more divine,
Filled earth and heaven; richer cloud-curtains furled
The west at eve; a softer flush impearled
The gates of dawn; a note more pure and fine
Rang in the thrush's song; a rarer shine
Varnished the leaves by May's sweet sun uncurled.
To me, who loved but knew not, all the air
Trembled to shocks of far-off melodies,
As all the summer's rustling thrills the trees
When spring suns strike their boughs, asleep and bare.
And then, one blessed day, I saw arise
Love's morning, glorious, in her tranquil eyes.
241
HELEN'S STAR STONE
There was a red star stone, old poets feign,Hung on the neck of Helen, the most fair
Of women, the world's wonder; gathering there,
Dripped ever one bright drop of blood; like rain
That ere it falls blows into mist again.
The crimson gout melted to roseate air,
And that divine white bosom, proudly bare,
Of all the woe it cost bore never a stain.
So you, serene and beauteous lady, rove
'Mid throngs of luckless ones who gaze and die.
And not a tremor of heartbreak, not a sigh
Nor strangling sob of strong men whelmed in love
Avails your calm heart by one beat to move
Or dims the cloudless heaven of your eye.
242
A CHALLENGE
The luminous pages of all story proveHigh love hath ending in heroic woe;
Sharp-fanged and fell, dark death doth ever go
In waiting for the wandering feet of love.
And if that fate be shunned, love's footsteps move
Down the dull slope that leads to regions low
Where the thick pulse of ease and wont beats slow
As in some dusk and poppy-haunted grove.
Shall we accept, or shall we not defy,
Entrenched in our fast love, this augury?
Never shall I less than adore thee, Sweet!
No use, my queen, shall dim thy radiant crown.
And if, in envy, death shall strike me down,
Let his dart find me here, kissing thy feet!
243
LOVE AND MUSIC
I gazed upon my love while music smoteThe soft night air into glad harmony;
Lapt on the ripples of a silver sea,
I heard the bright tones rapturous dance and float.
Hearing and sight were wed; each flattering note
Meant some perfection of my love to me.
Caressed by music, it was bliss to see
Her form, white-robed, the jewel at her throat,
Her glimmering hands, her dusky, perfumed hair,
Her low, clear brow, her deep, proud, dreaming eyes,
Bent kindly upon me, her worshiper;
The dulcet, delicate sounds that shook the air—
As if love's joy rained from the starlit skies—
Seemed all sweet, inarticulate thoughts of her.
244
OBEDIENCE
The lady of my love bids me not love her.I can but bow obedient to her will;
And so, henceforth, I love her not; but still
I love the lustrous hair that glitters over
Her proud young head; I love the smiles that hover
About her mouth; the lights and shades that fill
Her star-bright eyes; the low, rich tones that thrill
Like thrush-songs gurgling from a vernal cover.
I love the fluttering dimples in her cheek;
Her cheek I love, its soft and tender bloom;
I love her sweet lips and the words they speak,
Words wise or witty, full of joy or doom.
I love her shoes, her gloves, her dainty dress;
And all they clasp, and cling to, and caress.
245
COMPENSATION
Pindar, the Theban, sang to HieronIn Doric verse, rich as rough-hammered gold,
The Immortals deal to men, now as of old,
Two ill things for one good. These words, forth blown
From such a trumpet, through the ages groan
A note of misery. And yet I hold
That though they deal us evils manifold
We owe the High Powers gratitude alone.
For one good may be worth a thousand ills;
And all the sum of wretchedness that fills
The travailing earth, the sea, the arching blue
Cannot exceed the wealth of joy that lies
In sweet, low words, in smiles and loving eyes—
Cannot compare with love, if love be true.
246
ESTRELLA
My love is like a planet in the skyWhereon a star-seer bends his reverent gaze,
Waiting for those bright moments when its rays
Flame out in beauty; then his raptured eye
May trace its light and shadow; he may try
To pluck in shreds its rainbow-tinted blaze;
But still unknown and vague the planet stays
Throned in the luminous blue, serene and high.
I, though I love and wonder, may not know.
Too lofty for me is that magic lore.
A sacred mystery folds evermore
The thoughts that make her deep eyes flash and glow,
The meaning of that slow smile's dazzling shine,
The sweet, proud lips no kisses can make mine.
247
INFINITE VARIETY
In my one love are many loves entwined;Each hour makes me unfaithful to the last;
The beauty present dims the beauty past;
Of her worst rivals is her self combined.
When she is pale, in her dear cheek I find
The fairest shade on earth was ever cast;
And if she blush, that hue is not surpassed
In roses ruffled by the wanton wind.
Sometimes her sweet lips droop to a purpose sad;
Then all my soul in loving sympathy
Burns to dispel her sadness with a kiss;
And when they flash and curve in laughter glad,
Around the corners of her mouth I see
A swarm of hovering loves, sporting in bliss.
248
TO ONE ABSENT
Only a week ago, heaven bent so nearIt bartered greetings with the jocund earth,
The sweet June day was lived with love and mirth,
A world of verdure laughed in summer cheer.
And when night came its charm was doubly dear;
Under that opulent moon joy knew no dearth;
All beautiful and gracious things had birth
In your eyes' cherishing light;—for you were here.
Now all that glow of life is vanished; lorn
The world lies under the cold gleam of morn.
Withered and shrinking in the spectral blue
Hangs the sad moon, a pale and shuddering ghost
Of all that glory in your absence lost—
Fading and waning, love, for lack of you.
249
SLEEP
I bless the power of this charmed summer night,I bless its magic and its mystery,
Which in ecstatic visions brings to me
The worshiped presence of my soul's delight.
Mine eyes are sealed, but on my clearer sight
Her heaven-bright features shine more radiantly,
Her sweet voice with a richer melody
Enchants the dark, more luminous than light.
I miss the sense of daylight's haunting ills,
Bathed in this lambent tide of sleep and love;
I only see one dazzling image beam,
Shrined in a rosy universe of dream,
Fairer than Dian bending tranced above
The sleeping shepherd on the Latmian hills.
250
EUTHANASIA
Take from my hand, dear love, these opening flowers.Afar from thee they grew, 'neath alien skies
Their stems sought light and life in humble wise,
Fed by the careless suns and vagrant showers.
But now their fate obeys the rule of ours.
They pass to airs made glorious by thine eyes.
Smit with swift joy, they breathe, in fragrant sighs,
Their souls out toward thee in their last glad hours,
Paying leal tribute to a brighter bloom.
Thus, and not other, is the giver's fate.
Through years unblest by thee, a cheerless path,
A checkered maze of common glare and gloom,
He came to know in rapture deep though late
How thou couldst brighten life and gentle death.
251
A PRAYER IN THESSALY
A lover prayed to Eros in this wise:—
Since my love loves not me, Eros! I pray
That thou wilt take this torturing love away.
But since she is so fair, still let mine eyes
Unloving, joy in her, her beauty prize;
Still let her clear voice ring as pure and gay
To my calm heart as mating birds in May.
That thou wilt take this torturing love away.
But since she is so fair, still let mine eyes
Unloving, joy in her, her beauty prize;
Still let her clear voice ring as pure and gay
To my calm heart as mating birds in May.
The words went up the blue Thessalian skies.
But ere they reached the high god's golden seat,
The lover to retract his prayer was fain:
The lover to retract his prayer was fain:
Nay, let me keep the bitter with the sweet,
Better than placid bliss is love's dear pain.
My love I'll hold and cherish though it prove
More blighting than the frowning brows of Jove.
Better than placid bliss is love's dear pain.
My love I'll hold and cherish though it prove
More blighting than the frowning brows of Jove.
252
ACCIDENTS
A vision seen by Plato the divine:Two shuddering souls come forward, waiting doom
From Rhadamanthus in the nether gloom.
One is a slave—hunger has made him pine;
One is a king—his arms and jewels shine,
Making strange splendor in the dismal room.
“Hence!” cries the judge, “and strip them! Let them come
With nought to show if they be coarse or fine.”
Of garb and body they are swift bereft:
Such is hell's law—nothing but soul is left.
The slave, in virtue glorious, is held fit
For those blest isles of peace where just kings go.
The king, by vice deformed, is sent below
To herd with base slaves in the wailing pit.
253
SONGS AND LYRICS
VESPERS
My Star has vanished in the west,
And with it dies the day,
And all the rosy light of life
Is fading into gray.
And with it dies the day,
And all the rosy light of life
Is fading into gray.
The sky is full of other stars,
But none to me are dear;
Their silvery light fills all the night,
But still the world is drear.
But none to me are dear;
Their silvery light fills all the night,
But still the world is drear.
Far in the west one tender flush
The dim horizon stains,—
A memory of hours that were,
A hope that yet remains.
The dim horizon stains,—
A memory of hours that were,
A hope that yet remains.
For, wheeling over many lands
And brightly shining on,
In happier days my Evening Star
Will be my Star of Dawn.
And brightly shining on,
In happier days my Evening Star
Will be my Star of Dawn.
254
TO THE VESPER SPARROW
Sing the last word of the day!
Voice of the sparrow belated!
What hast thou seen by the way?
What hast thou loved most or hated?
Sadness to melody mated,
What is the grudge thou wouldst pay?
Voice of the sparrow belated!
What hast thou seen by the way?
What hast thou loved most or hated?
Sadness to melody mated,
What is the grudge thou wouldst pay?
Work, is it sadder than play?
Sorrow or joy sooner sated?
Dreams the sweet blossom of May
To what dull fruitage 't is fated?
When life and death are translated,
Seems Death or Life the more gay?
Sorrow or joy sooner sated?
Dreams the sweet blossom of May
To what dull fruitage 't is fated?
When life and death are translated,
Seems Death or Life the more gay?
Linger, shy singer, O stay!
Though the swift night has abated
Sky, lake, and woodland to gray.
Long have we questioned and waited.
Question and answer unmated
Die with the vanishing day.
Though the swift night has abated
Sky, lake, and woodland to gray.
Long have we questioned and waited.
Question and answer unmated
Die with the vanishing day.
255
THY WILL BE DONE
Not in dumb resignation
We lift our hands on high,
Not like the nerveless fatalist,
Content to trust and die.
Our faith springs like the eagle
Who soars to meet the sun,
And cries exulting unto Thee,
O Lord, Thy Will be done!
We lift our hands on high,
Not like the nerveless fatalist,
Content to trust and die.
Our faith springs like the eagle
Who soars to meet the sun,
And cries exulting unto Thee,
O Lord, Thy Will be done!
When tyrant feet are trampling
Upon the common weal,
Thou dost not bid us bend and writhe
Beneath the iron heel.
In Thy name we assert our right
By sword or tongue or pen,
And even the headsman's axe may flash
Thy message unto men.
Upon the common weal,
Thou dost not bid us bend and writhe
Beneath the iron heel.
In Thy name we assert our right
By sword or tongue or pen,
And even the headsman's axe may flash
Thy message unto men.
256
Thy Will! It bids the weak be strong,
It bids the strong be just;
No lip to fawn, no hand to beg,
No brow to seek the dust.
Wherever man oppresses man
Beneath Thy liberal sun,
O Lord, be there Thine arm made bare,
Thy righteous will be done.
It bids the strong be just;
No lip to fawn, no hand to beg,
No brow to seek the dust.
Wherever man oppresses man
Beneath Thy liberal sun,
O Lord, be there Thine arm made bare,
Thy righteous will be done.
257
EROS EPHEMERIS
Enough of thunderous passion
That clouds life's weary way.
Bid now in merrier fashion
The jocund pulses play.
Welcome the airy fancies
That charm and pass away,
The light loves,
The bright loves,
The loves that live a day.
That clouds life's weary way.
Bid now in merrier fashion
The jocund pulses play.
Welcome the airy fancies
That charm and pass away,
The light loves,
The bright loves,
The loves that live a day.
Too rude for mortal bosoms
The storms that rage for aye;
Ask not from frost the blossoms
That deck the laughing May.
Bid welcome all the gay loves
That wither if they stay,
The sweet loves,
The fleet loves,
The loves that live a day.
The storms that rage for aye;
Ask not from frost the blossoms
That deck the laughing May.
Bid welcome all the gay loves
That wither if they stay,
The sweet loves,
The fleet loves,
The loves that live a day.
258
IS SHE HERE?
He came in victory's lambent flame
'Mid myriad shouts and trumpets' blare,
While the glad people's loud acclaim
Made vocal all the summer air.
'Mid myriad shouts and trumpets' blare,
While the glad people's loud acclaim
Made vocal all the summer air.
But while the cannon's thunder boomed
Half-heard amid the loyal cry,
And starry banners glowed and bloomed
In beauty neath that western sky,
Half-heard amid the loyal cry,
And starry banners glowed and bloomed
In beauty neath that western sky,
He from the highway turned apart
And to a quiet nook drew near,
The dearest pulses of his heart
Beating the question, “Is she here?”
And to a quiet nook drew near,
The dearest pulses of his heart
Beating the question, “Is she here?”
The glory well and hardly earned
In civic toil and battle's fire
Was all forgotten as he turned
To meet his human heart's desire.
In civic toil and battle's fire
Was all forgotten as he turned
To meet his human heart's desire.
259
And light as dust lay in the scale
The favor of a flattering world
Weighed by that joy which cannot fail
In love and faith and honor furled.
The favor of a flattering world
Weighed by that joy which cannot fail
In love and faith and honor furled.
Like fire within the opal's heart,
Like fragrance in the rose's breast,
A sacred joy, serene, apart,
The highest and the holiest.
Like fragrance in the rose's breast,
A sacred joy, serene, apart,
The highest and the holiest.
260
MATINS
The trembling pulses of the dawn
Fill with faint glow the violet skies,
And on the moist, day-smitten lawn
The peace of morning lies.
Fill with faint glow the violet skies,
And on the moist, day-smitten lawn
The peace of morning lies.
A blessed truce of woe and sin,
A glad surcease of care's annoy;
The waking world has pleasure in
Its matin light and joy.
A glad surcease of care's annoy;
The waking world has pleasure in
Its matin light and joy.
And all the joy that fills the air,
And all the light that gilds the blue,
I see it in your eyes and hair,
I know it, love, in you.
And all the light that gilds the blue,
I see it in your eyes and hair,
I know it, love, in you.
O'er lips and eyes and golden floss
There floats a charm I cannot reach,
A glimpse of gain, a threat of loss,
Beyond my subtlest speech.
There floats a charm I cannot reach,
A glimpse of gain, a threat of loss,
Beyond my subtlest speech.
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The amethyst flush will fade above
Into the dust-dim glare of noon:
The love of youth, the youth of love,
Will fade and pass as soon.
Into the dust-dim glare of noon:
The love of youth, the youth of love,
Will fade and pass as soon.
Kiss close, belov'd! for never yet
Could love its bloom unchanging keep.
There are no hearts but they forget,
There are no eyes but sleep.
Could love its bloom unchanging keep.
There are no hearts but they forget,
There are no eyes but sleep.
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SWEETEST AND DEAREST
Vain are all names
To express what thou art,
Gem, rose, or morning-star,
Joy of my heart.
Still do the fond old words
Ring best and clearest—
Thou art my love, my own,
Sweetest and dearest.
To express what thou art,
Gem, rose, or morning-star,
Joy of my heart.
Still do the fond old words
Ring best and clearest—
Thou art my love, my own,
Sweetest and dearest.
Every warm heart-beat chimes
These words to me;
Needless all others
Between me and thee.
In the deep silences
One voice thou hearest—
'T is my heart calling thee
Sweetest and dearest.
These words to me;
Needless all others
Between me and thee.
In the deep silences
One voice thou hearest—
'T is my heart calling thee
Sweetest and dearest.
263
REVEILLE
Fly, poppied drowse, away!
Across the marshes sweep,
Chasing the fallen moon, the shadows gray;
Make me not laggard, Sleep!
Across the marshes sweep,
Chasing the fallen moon, the shadows gray;
Make me not laggard, Sleep!
Against the morning move,
Fronting the reddening miles!
Touch the white eyelids of the girl I love,
And fill her dreams with smiles.
Fronting the reddening miles!
Touch the white eyelids of the girl I love,
And fill her dreams with smiles.
264
TWO ON THE TERRACE
Warm waves of lavish moonlight
The Capitol enfold,
As if a richer noon light
Bathed its white walls with gold.
The great bronze Freedom shining,
Her crest in ether shrining,
Peers eastward as divining
The new day from the old.
The Capitol enfold,
As if a richer noon light
Bathed its white walls with gold.
The great bronze Freedom shining,
Her crest in ether shrining,
Peers eastward as divining
The new day from the old.
Mark the mild planet pouring
Her splendor o'er the ground;
See the white obelisk soaring
To pierce the blue profound.
Beneath the still heavens beaming,
The lighted town lies gleaming,
In guarded slumber dreaming—
A world without a sound.
Her splendor o'er the ground;
See the white obelisk soaring
To pierce the blue profound.
Beneath the still heavens beaming,
The lighted town lies gleaming,
In guarded slumber dreaming—
A world without a sound.
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No laughter and no sobbing
From those dim roofs arise,
The myriad pulses throbbing
Are silent as the skies.
To us their peace is given,
The meed of spirits shriven;
I see the wide, pure heaven
Reflected in your eyes.
From those dim roofs arise,
The myriad pulses throbbing
Are silent as the skies.
To us their peace is given,
The meed of spirits shriven;
I see the wide, pure heaven
Reflected in your eyes.
Ah love! a thousand æons
Shall range their trooping years;
The morning stars their pæans
Shall sing to countless ears.
These married States may sever,
Strong Time this dome may shiver,
But love shall last forever
And lovers' hopes and fears.
Shall range their trooping years;
The morning stars their pæans
Shall sing to countless ears.
These married States may sever,
Strong Time this dome may shiver,
But love shall last forever
And lovers' hopes and fears.
So let us send our greeting,
A wish for trust and bliss,
To future lovers meeting
On far-off nights like this,
Who, in these walls' undoing
Perforce of Time's rough wooing,
Amid the crumbling ruin
Shall meet, clasp hands, and kiss.
A wish for trust and bliss,
To future lovers meeting
On far-off nights like this,
266
Perforce of Time's rough wooing,
Amid the crumbling ruin
Shall meet, clasp hands, and kiss.
267
“RHYMES”
APPARENTLY COMPOSED DURING THE EARLY MONTHS OF THE CIVIL WAR
Sown sparsely through earth's lifetime there are hours
That teem with giant forms of novel powers;
When from an idler century's budding gloom
The petals of an epoch burst to bloom,
Vaguely revealing to the questioning skies
Anthers and spikes of unfamiliar dyes;
When through life's growing woof, run suddenly,
Threads, dim—presageful of the fate to be,
And omens darkly from the distance stray,
Like orient splendors out of morn's dull gray,
Whispering low, as gather from afar
The vague foreshadows of the distant war,
The war-cries heavy with the hate of years
The murmurous clashing of the myriad spears;
Omens that presage not the honest fields
Where alien mottoes mark opposing shields,
Where loyal men-at-arms, with martial glee
With sword blades carve an emperor's decree,
Where trumpets wail and silken banners wave
Proudly and mournfully o'er valor's grave;
Far darker lowers the promise of the fight
Which locks in desperate grapple wrong and right,
Where o'er the legions of embattled hosts
Float the dim shadows of indignant ghosts
Where good and evil armed and regnant stand
Shouting the battle cry to either band,
And men thus fired with hate and vengeance grim
Strive with the sinews of the Anakim
And on the trampled turf distills the stain
That tinged the sod of Armageddon's plain.
That teem with giant forms of novel powers;
When from an idler century's budding gloom
The petals of an epoch burst to bloom,
Vaguely revealing to the questioning skies
Anthers and spikes of unfamiliar dyes;
When through life's growing woof, run suddenly,
Threads, dim—presageful of the fate to be,
And omens darkly from the distance stray,
Like orient splendors out of morn's dull gray,
Whispering low, as gather from afar
The vague foreshadows of the distant war,
The war-cries heavy with the hate of years
The murmurous clashing of the myriad spears;
Omens that presage not the honest fields
Where alien mottoes mark opposing shields,
268
With sword blades carve an emperor's decree,
Where trumpets wail and silken banners wave
Proudly and mournfully o'er valor's grave;
Far darker lowers the promise of the fight
Which locks in desperate grapple wrong and right,
Where o'er the legions of embattled hosts
Float the dim shadows of indignant ghosts
Where good and evil armed and regnant stand
Shouting the battle cry to either band,
And men thus fired with hate and vengeance grim
Strive with the sinews of the Anakim
And on the trampled turf distills the stain
That tinged the sod of Armageddon's plain.
At such a time Art sickens through the world,
Song slumbers with lethargic pinions furled,
Listless the painter at his easel stands,
Drops the dulled chisel from the sculptor's hands,
The harp hangs silent with untrembling chords
For deeds are now more eloquent than words.
As, when reluctant night is half-withdrawn,
Steals on the wold the mystery of dawn,
The grove may rustle with unquiet wings
But never a bird from out his covert sings.
But when the routed shadows break and flee
And Light stands victor on the dew-lit lea
Glad in the triumph, from the twittering throng
How pours the jubilant cataract of song!
In this vague twilight poets silent wait
While the stern Sisters chant the runes of fate.
For fuller than the measure of their rhyme
Swells the grand cadence of avenging Time,
And deeper than the trembling of their chords
The Anvil Chorus of the clashing swords.
Song slumbers with lethargic pinions furled,
Listless the painter at his easel stands,
Drops the dulled chisel from the sculptor's hands,
The harp hangs silent with untrembling chords
For deeds are now more eloquent than words.
269
Steals on the wold the mystery of dawn,
The grove may rustle with unquiet wings
But never a bird from out his covert sings.
But when the routed shadows break and flee
And Light stands victor on the dew-lit lea
Glad in the triumph, from the twittering throng
How pours the jubilant cataract of song!
In this vague twilight poets silent wait
While the stern Sisters chant the runes of fate.
For fuller than the measure of their rhyme
Swells the grand cadence of avenging Time,
And deeper than the trembling of their chords
The Anvil Chorus of the clashing swords.
Not mine the task to wander far away
Into the rose-mists of a happier day,
To re-create beneath these leaden skies
The hues of a forgotten Paradise,
Or soothe the soul with love's voluptuous swells,
Soft as a Lydian dancer's ankle-bells:
Not this. For I have neither will nor power
To scorn the regal summons of the hour
And you'll forgive the unmelodious rhyme
That beats the jangled rhythm of the time,
For never since the days of that July,
Consecrate through all time to Liberty,
Since the glad light of that grand summer morn
Kissed the bright forehead of an empire born,
Has any hour brought in its flight a freight
So cumbered with the mysteries of fate.
Into the rose-mists of a happier day,
To re-create beneath these leaden skies
The hues of a forgotten Paradise,
Or soothe the soul with love's voluptuous swells,
Soft as a Lydian dancer's ankle-bells:
270
To scorn the regal summons of the hour
And you'll forgive the unmelodious rhyme
That beats the jangled rhythm of the time,
For never since the days of that July,
Consecrate through all time to Liberty,
Since the glad light of that grand summer morn
Kissed the bright forehead of an empire born,
Has any hour brought in its flight a freight
So cumbered with the mysteries of fate.
While all the earth in dread suspense is bowed,
We can but watch the piling of the cloud.
Out of its depths no blinding flash has come,
Still sleep inert the inner thunders dumb.
Until this cloud and gloom be overpast
And the torn mist goes sailing down the blast
And the glad earth, green in the springtime rain,
Laughs with the sunshine and the flowers again,
Of fairer themes what man shall dare to sing?
The lute is silent, while the trumpets ring.
And Pleasure's lilt, and Fancy's airy play
Wait for the freedom of a brighter day.
We can but watch the piling of the cloud.
Out of its depths no blinding flash has come,
Still sleep inert the inner thunders dumb.
Until this cloud and gloom be overpast
And the torn mist goes sailing down the blast
And the glad earth, green in the springtime rain,
Laughs with the sunshine and the flowers again,
Of fairer themes what man shall dare to sing?
The lute is silent, while the trumpets ring.
271
Wait for the freedom of a brighter day.
In the proud chronicles of a future age
These passing days will fill the proudest page,
Topping the landmarks of the coming time,
The beacons of to-day will loom sublime.
This is our hour supreme: this storm and stress
Shall blot or vindicate our worthiness.
This is the promise vague of fate's decree
And other hours have been that this might be.
These passing days will fill the proudest page,
Topping the landmarks of the coming time,
The beacons of to-day will loom sublime.
This is our hour supreme: this storm and stress
Shall blot or vindicate our worthiness.
This is the promise vague of fate's decree
And other hours have been that this might be.
Far back through elder years and distant climes
Shines the stern presage of the passing times.
To keep the truth now periled, bright and pure,
The people fought their King on Marston Moor,
Where curled court darlings sank to death's eclipse—
Sweet names of English ladies on their lips,
And still the tyrant-hating lifestream ran
Hot from the gashed veins of the Puritan.
Charged with the germ of days to come like these,
The Mayflower shivering sailed the wintry seas
And her stern crew beneath that iron sky
Sang their first hymn to God and Liberty.
Shines the stern presage of the passing times.
To keep the truth now periled, bright and pure,
The people fought their King on Marston Moor,
Where curled court darlings sank to death's eclipse—
Sweet names of English ladies on their lips,
And still the tyrant-hating lifestream ran
Hot from the gashed veins of the Puritan.
272
The Mayflower shivering sailed the wintry seas
And her stern crew beneath that iron sky
Sang their first hymn to God and Liberty.
| The complete poetical works of John Hay | |