University of Virginia Library

Now Finale to the Shore.

NOW FINALE TO THE SHORE.

Now finale to the shore!
Now, land and life, finale, and farewell!
Now Voyager depart! (much, much for thee is yet in store;)
Often enough hast thou adventur'd o'er the seas,
Cautiously cruising, studying the charts,
Duly again to port, and hawser's tie, returning:
—But how obey thy cherish'd, secret wish,
Embrace thy friends—leave all in order;
To port, and hawser's tie, no more returning,
Depart upon thy endless cruise, old Sailor!

SHUT NOT YOUR DOORS, &c.

Shut not your doors to me, proud libraries,
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd shelves, yet needed most, I bring;
Forth from the army, the war emerging—a book I have made,
The words of my book nothing—the drift of it everything;
A book separate, not link'd with the rest, nor felt by the intellect,
But you, ye untold latencies, will thrill to every page;
Through Space and Time fused in a chant, and the flowing, eternal Identity,
To Nature, encompassing these, encompassing God—to the joyous, electric All,
To the sense of Death—and accepting, exulting in Death, in its turn, the same as life,
The entrance of Man I sing.

THOUGHT.

As they draw to a close,
Of what underlies the precedent songs—of my aims in them;
Of the seed I have sought to plant in them;
Of joy, sweet joy, through many a year, in them;
(For them—for them have I lived—In them my work is done;)
Of many an aspiration fond—of many a dream and plan,
Of you, O mystery great!—to place on record faith in you, O death!
—To compact you, ye parted, diverse lives!
To put rapport the mountains, and rocks, and streams,
And the winds of the north, and the forests of oak and pine,
With you, O soul of man.

THE UNTOLD WANT.

The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.

PORTALS.

What are those of the known, but to ascend and enter the Unknown?
And what are those of life, but for Death?

THESE CAROLS.

These Carols, sung to cheer my passage through the world I see,
For completion, I dedicate to the Invisible World.

THIS DAY, O SOUL.

This day, O Soul, I give you a wondrous mirror;
Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay—But the cloud has pass'd, and the tarnish gone;
... Behold, O Soul! it is now a clean and bright mirror,
Faithfully showing you all the things of the world.

WHAT PLACE IS BESIEGED?

What place is besieged, and vainly tries to raise the siege?
Lo! I send to that place a commander, swift, brave, immortal;
And with him horse and foot—and parks of artillery,
And artillery-men, the deadliest that ever fired gun.

TO THE READER AT PARTING.

Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face,
We must separate awhile—Here! take from my lips this kiss;
Whoever you are, I give it especially to you;
So long!—And I hope we shall meet again.

JOY, SHIPMATE, JOY!

Joy! shipmate—joy!
(Pleas'd to my Soul at death I cry;)
Our life is closed—our life begins;
The long, long anchorage we leave,
The ship is clear at last—she leaps!
She swiftly courses from the shore;
Joy! shipmate—joy!