[Poems by Tabb in] Father Tabb :: :: University of Virginia Library

O wind and waters, ye alone
Have chanted the primeval tone
Since Nature first began.
All other voices change, but ye
Abide, the soul of harmony
Interpreting the man.

He listens, and his heart is fain
To fashion an immortal strain;
Yet his sublimest lay
Is but the music of a tongue
Attuned to silence, and among
The echoes dies away.

OUR FIRST-BORN

It died so young! and yet,
Of all that vanished hence,
Is none to lingering regret
So lost as Innocence:

For wheresoe'er we go,
Whatever else remain,
That Favorite of Heaven, we know,
We shall not find again.

186

MUTATION

Till comes the crescent Moon,
We worship each a Star;
But in the region of Noon,
Alike forgotten are
The lesser and the larger light
That ruled the destinies of Night.

Anon, the darkness near,
Within their dim domain
To Memory appear
The twilight Gods again;
And Reverence beneath their sway
Forgets the Sovereignty of Day.

THE IMAGE-MAKER

“Thou shalt no graven image make;”
And yet, O sculptor, for the sake
Of such an effigy as I—
The superscription like the face
Disfigured now, and hard to trace—
Didst thou thyself consent to die.

SUNDERED

Thou sleepest sound, and I
Anear thee lie,
Yet worlds apart:
Thou in the light of dreams;
I, where the midnight seems—
An ashen sea—
From this my world and that wherein thou art
To blot out all but me.

187

ANIMULA VAGA

A spirit from the grave
Again I come,
E'en as I vanished, save
Disrobed and dumb.

No shadow as I pass—
However clear
The wave on mirroring glass—
Betrays me near;

Nor unto them that live
Forlorn of me,
A signal can I give
Of sympathy.

Ah, better 'twere to hide
Where none appear,
Than thus in death abide
To life so near!

POE'S COTTAGE AT FORDHAM

Here, where to pinching penury the gloom
Of Death was wedded, came Immortal Love,
And Genius, with all the pomp thereof,
To consecrate a temple and a tomb.

AUGURY

Before the dawn, 'tis light,
If Hope the vigil keep;
Before the noon-tide, night,
Of Woe, despairing, weep:
The Future 'tis that shows
What now the present knows.

188

UNDERTOW

In boreal calm the spirit feels
A far-off thunder-roll,
And through each tropic passion steals
A current from the pole.

DAWN

Love told a Star the vision that beguiled
His slumber; and the Darkness, hearing, smiled.

A FOOT-RULE

[_]

Father Tabb's comment upon Mr. Punch's recent remarks on the subject of poetical feet:

When a poet gives his hand,
Meet it is to greet the greeter.
When his feet in question stand,
It is metre.

SIGNALS

The prophet Star, the Maiden Dawn, the Sun—
So light begins his reign;
Then Sunset, widowed Twilight, and anon
The prophet Star again.

IMPORT

Thou hast the final touch supplied
That till thy coming was denied—
A single letter in a word
Whose absence all the context blurred;
A missing note that, but for thee,
Had marred the perfect harmony.

189

THE VAMPIRE MOON

The vital vapors to absorb,
The moon, with famished gaze,
Suspends her lean, malignant orb
Above a dying face.

I watch her like a folded flower,
As silently expand
The pulses waving hour by hour
And heavier the hand,

Till she hath brimmed her cup; and I
An empty chalice hold;
My heart, in agony, as dry,
In wintriness as cold.

SUFFICIT

We are alone!
The night-winds moan
For envy, and the sobbing rain
Protests in vain.
How deep their darkness! But our night,
Than day more bright,
Needs not the glimmering orbs above,
But only Love.

IN TOUCH

How slight soe'er the motion be,
With palpitating hand
The gentlest breaker of the sea
Betrays it to the land.

And though a vaster mystery
Hath set our souls apart,
Each wafture from eternity
Reveals thee to my heart.

190

TIDES

Like inland streams, O Sea,
Thro' joy and pain
All nature dreams of thee;
Nor more appears
Thy life in mist or rain
Than in our tears.

NIGHT-BORN

The fairest blossom of the light
Was nurtured in the womb of Night,
An alien to the Sun;
And to her bosom must she need
Recall each love-selected seed,
When blossom-time is done.

And we—by baptism of sleep
Her children—waken but to keep
The memory of charms
And promises, that ne'er too soon
Despite the blandishments of Noon
Restore us to her arms.

ALFRED TENNYSON

The lordliest at Arthur's Table Round
No loftier than thou,
The laureate, with England's glory crowned,
Whom Death has knighted now.

191

AUTUMN-GLOW

If this the preface be of death
In crimson, green, and gold,
What wondrous art illumineth
The story still untold?

VICTORIA

Now from the throne of England one is borne,
Whom all men mourn,
Nor more as queen, than for the life that stood
The type of Motherhood.

MY SERVANT

Lord, wheresoe'er I am, Thou art,
In love subservient to me,
Still tendering a lowlier port
Than saint or angel unto me.

JACET LEO XIII

“Behold the aged Lion, Lord,
I am,
Now come to lay me down
Beside the Lamb.”

A CARCANET

I give thee, love, a carcanet,
With all the rainbow splendor set,
Of diamonds that drink the sun,
Of emeralds that feed upon

192

His light as doth the evergreen,
A memory of spring between
This frost of whiter pearls than snow,
And warmth of violets below
A wreath of opalescent mist,
Where blooms the tender amethyst;
Here, too, the captives of the mine—
The sapphire and the ruby—shine,
Rekindling each a hidden spark,
Unquenched by buried ages dark,
Nor dimmed beneath the jeweled skies,
Save by the sunlight of thine eyes.

193

WAVES

We sighed of old till underneath His feet
Our pulses beat,
Again to sigh in restlessness until
He saith, “Be still.”

And with us is the ever-moving wind,
And all mankind—
A triple chorus—each upheaving breast,
A sigh for rest.

TO THE FREEDMAN

Friend of the dusky visage, whereupon
When all things else have yielded to the light
Abides the cleaving shadow of a night
The darker for the noonday's fiercer sun;
Among earth's kindred nations nearer, none
Than thine and mine. Thou standest in the fight,
A slave beside a master for whose right
Thine arm, with his uplifted, lost or won.
Nay; now the victor vanquished, when the foe
Exulting in a land of bondage free,
Flung out the signal, “Smite the smiter!” lo,
Thou wouldst not; but with new-wed Liberty
Wentest thy way—nor yet as glad to go,
But oft in tears that all the world might see.

194

THE JEWESS

A mother she in Israel,
With eyes, like Jacob's well,
Untouched by time—their tender grace,
As from the Temple's inmost place,
Telling the twofold mystery
Of Eden and Gethsemane.

REPOSE

I laid me down in solitude, but not alone:
The night was with me, and the stars above me shone;
The Earth, my mother, pillowed me, and to her breast
I nestled as a weary child that yearns for rest.
The drowsy ripple of a stream that murmured near
With lisping leaves made lullaby to soothe mine ear;
But o'er the mystery of calm my brooding mind
Hung as an eagle motionless upon the wind,
Till stirred with energy of thought, on pinions strong,
Through swift-receding centuries it swept along,
Far out of space and period, where yet of time
No wave had drifted to disturb the depth sublime.
Then, lo! from vastness infinite, one lonely ray
Gleamed, trembling in its solitude, upon the way,
And through the region measureless, a whisper came—
A thrill of hidden majesty that breathed my name:
“Yon beam upon immensity that breathed my name:
From all eternity hath been thy dwelling, Man.
There wast thou, ever intimate, a thought of Him—
The One-Intelligence—that spans the ages dim.
The time, the place, all influence prevailing here,
In pregnant lineament conceived, was imaged there;
For in the mystic harmony of Nature kind,
These kindred elements fulfil a chord designed,
The shadows that encompass thee, the soothing sleep,
The swathing dreams elysian, the silence deep,
All speak one calm Original, whose power divine

195

Hath wrought for them a destiny that measures thine;
For all to man are ministrants of heavenly love,
Out-breathings from the Fountain-head of rest above.”

A TRAVELLER'S GUIDE

This is the way to Lullaby Town,
To Lullaby Town, to Lullaby Town—
First go up, and then go down:
This is the way to Lullaby Town.

Folks that go to Lullaby Town,
To Lullaby Town, to Lullaby Town—
Travel each in a snow-white gown;
This is the dress for Lullaby Town.

Dreams have homes in Lullaby Town,
In Lullaby Town, in Lullaby Town—
Dreams that smile, for never a frown
Enters the gates of Lullaby Town.

196

SEEMING FAILURE

O wave upon the strand!
What urges thee in vain
To lift the baffled hand
In suppliance again?

“The passion that impels
The tidal energies
In every bud that swells,
In every soul that sighs:

“The same that on the cross
Sustained the dying Christ,
When Love for seeming Loss
Alone was sacrificed.”

THE DYING BOY TO THE WIND-FLOWERS

And have ye come again,
Dim seedling of the Dew?
Long waiting have I lain
In wintriness like you,
Through many a month of pain,
And wondered if ye knew:

197

And whether ye, unchanged
Despite the sundering snow,
When back to light ye ranged,
My altered face would know,
Or deem the heart estranged
That late had loved you so.

But now with glances sweet
Ye've wandered back today,
Your lagging friend to meet,
And chide his long delay.
Behold, with willing feet
I follow! Lead the way!

COBWEBS

A net to catch the earliest gleam
Of westward swimming light;
On hammock of the latest dream
That left the shores of night.

THE PRECIPICE

Above the fathomed deep
Of Death, we move in sleep,
And who among us knows
How near the brink he goes?

198

THE TOUCH-ME-NOT

So ticklish is my skin
That if you touch my side
The little seed within
Will laugh, and split me wide.

So, when I see you near
The mirth-provoking spot,
No wonder that I fear,
And bid you touch-me-not.

CHRISTMAS GREETING

Good morning, Lord! For little boys
The Day more generous to joys
Than unto men, they say;
If so, for greater happiness
Teach us Thy holy name to bless
With fuller hearts than they.

MOUNTAIN-BORN

How hast thou, little spring,
The heart to sing,
Leaving thy lofty home
For yonder plain,
Whence ne'er again
Returning canst thou come?

“Nay not as now I go;
But mute as snow,”
The laughing wave replies;
“To crown the height,
In vapors white
Again I nightly rise.”

199

MY SOUL

In my body bides a guest,
Time-born for Eternity—
Ne'er to mortal manifest;
To my very self unknown;
Visible to God alone,
And revealing Him to me.

GOOD FRIDAY

Behold in every crimson glow
Of earth and sky and sea,
The Hand that fashioned them doth show
Love crucified for me.

HEREDITY

The children of the night,
The star, the glowworm bright,
The dewdrop clear,
In livery of light
Undimmed appear.

The children of the Day,
The cleaving shadows gray,
Wan vigils keep,
Twice on their twilight way
His doom to weep.

TO A DROP OF POISON

As once, the seal of Solomon beneath,
The Genius in bonds, rebellious lay;
So lieth here a mightier captive Death,
Fate-bound his fond deliverer to slay.

200

IN SHADOW

Heeds yonder star thy song,
O warbler of the night?
“I know not, for the way is long
That leads unto the light.
But as the music of the spheres,
A twinkling silence here appears,
Perchance my warbling from afar
Appears a star.”

SUBMISSION

Since to my smiting enemy
Thou biddest me be meek,
Lo, gladlier, my God, to Thee
I turn the other cheek.

GENEVIEVE

Genevieve was all to me,
Heart to heart we toiled together;
Shade in summer heat was she,
Sunshine in the cloudy weather.
Now alas, no more to me,
Genevieve is dead.

Genevieve was fair as May,
Eyes that dreamed the light of heaven,
Locks whereon the life beams lay;
E'en in death to her were given
Sunshine sped in clouds away,
Genevieve is dead.

Genevieve, not all in vain
Fell thy sands of life before me,
Hope in every golden grain,
Star-like glimmers to allure me
To a life beyond the main,
To a love not dead.

201

STABAT MATER

In the shadow of the rood,
Broken-hearted there she stood
Near her Son and Lord;
While her soul, His doom lamenting,
Yet in sacrifice consenting,
Felt the cleaving sword.

Thou alone no ransom needing,
Let thy Son, the Victim bleeding,
For my sin atone;
What for me, my God and Brother
Deigns to bear, O sinless Mother,
Lean not thou alone.

To the lash, for sin atoning,
Lo, He bows! and thou, O moaning
Mother, now must see
Limb from limb His spirit languish,
And His latest looks of anguish,
Turned in love to thee!

Came there ever to another
Grief like thine, O wounded Mother,
As thou lookest upon
Him, the Son of God, all holy,
And of thee, a virgin lowly,
Sole-begotten Son?

Who so lost to human feeling
As to hide his tears revealing
Sympathy with thine?
Who that e'er was born of woman,
In a tenderness so human,
Sees not love divine?

Let me near the fountain growing
Of thy tenderness o'erflowing,
Drink my fill thereof;
Let the fervid flames illuming
All thy soul, a fire consuming,
Kindle mine to love.

202

One with thee, my vigil keeping;
One with thee, the mourner, weeping
Near His sacred side,
Where thy soil in desolation
Waits of woe the consummation,
Let my soul abide.

Virgin, earth's divinest blossom,
Spurn not from thy fragrant bosom
Dews that fall for thee!
Make me, near thy Son remaining,
Simon-like, His cross sustaining,
One in sympathy!

Let me from His life-distilling
Wounds, mine empty chalice filling,
Quaff the crimson wine;
Let the flames, devouring, end me,
In thy chastity defend me,
From the wrath divine.

Lord, through her who brought Thee hither,
Let me, hence departing whither
Thou the way hast found,
Come through Death's opposing portal,
To the Victor's palm immortal,
With Thy glory crowned.

THE MESSAGE

Let every South American beware, for lo! the strenuous man, our sovereign lord and master, says:

Unless you quickly mend your ways,
Upon your bended necks you'll feel
The impression of my armed heel,
A thing that every Filipino
Has learned as thoroughly as we know.

J. B. T.

203

SUBWAY THEOLOGY

Bishop Potter, finding hotter
Passions than there used to be,
To the Gospel bids defiance,
And appeals to modern science
For the remedy.

Saint and devil on a level
Walked of late where all men saw;
But the wise, by his example,
Travel now a subway ample.
Paved with fragments of the law.

Here this up-to-date instructor
Gives each clerical conductor
Transfers for the nuptial route,
So that they who feel the folly
Of the matrimonial trolley
May, at will, get out.

VOX DEI

“Some said it thundered.”

The Father speaking to the Son,
In all the multitude was none
That caught the meaning true.
And yet “This word from Heaven,” said He,
“Was spoken not because of me—
But came because of you.”

Thus through the Son of Man alone
The mysteries of God are known;
Thus to the chosen few
With eye and ear attentive found
He speaks in every sight and sound,
The old becoming new.

204

DAISIES

Peacemakers ye, the daisies, from the soil
Upbreathing wordless messages of love,
Soothing of earth-born brethren the toil
And lifting e'en the lowliest above.

THE ASTRONOMER

The little dome that holds the brain
Whereby he measures from afar,
The influence of steadfast star
Or moving moon and sun—
Both vaster mysteries contain
Than those he looks upon;
Nay, such the marvel that perchance
The spheres in mute amazement scan,
The while they meet his upward glance,
The deeper mind of man.

ST. CHRISTOPHER

It was a very little Boy
That on the river side
Stood calling, “Ferryman, ahoy!
Come, take me o'er the tide!”

The Ferryman came wading on,
And seeing but a child,
“Get up upon my shoulder, Son,”
He said, and, stooping, smiled.

But when into the stream again
The giant boldly strode,
His every muscle was astrain
Beneath the growing load;

Till finally, with failing strength,
He reached the other bank,
And putting down the Boy, at length
Upon the margin sank.

205

“Who art thou,” wondering, he cried,
“That hast so burdened me?”
“The Son of God,” the Boy replied,
“Who bore the Cross for thee.

“Henceforth thy task pursuing here
For love of souls forlorn
Thou'lt bear the name of Christopher,
As thou the Christ hast borne;

“And little sufferers that see
How great is thy reward
Shall cry, ‘like Christopher are we
Thy Ferrymen, O Lord.’”

TO SIDNEY LANIER

The same blue-bending dome encanopies
Thine ashes and the spark that kindles mine;
Upon the selfsame bosom we recline,
When with the wind, the wave, land-lessening, dies
And, 'twixt our souls the star-wrought mysteries—
Of Hope the sacred oracles divine—
Steadfast above the vault of darkness shine,
To point the path benighted to the skies.
For there, of dreams unsepulchred, and free
“To face the vast sweet Visage, unafraid,”
That erst thy spirit reverenced to see
In Nature's lowliest lineaments portrayed,
Thou keepest watchful memory of me,
A lingering phantom of the mortal shade.