 | [Poems by Tabb in] Father Tabb |  |
55
“SOMEWHERE”
“Somewhere beneath the blinding snows—
A smouldering senser, burns my rose;
But Love alone the secret knows
Till Spring appear.
A smouldering senser, burns my rose;
But Love alone the secret knows
Till Spring appear.
Somewhere in unimagined deeps,
My star, a radiant dreamer, sleeps;
But Love alone the secret knows,
Till Night is near.”
My star, a radiant dreamer, sleeps;
But Love alone the secret knows,
Till Night is near.”
71
AT LANIER'S GRAVE
I stand beneath the native tree
That guards the spot where thou art laid;
For since thy light is lost to me
I loiter in the shade.
That guards the spot where thou art laid;
For since thy light is lost to me
I loiter in the shade.
72
I lean upon the rugged stone
As on the breast from which I came,
To learn 'tis not my heart alone
That bears thy sacred name.
As on the breast from which I came,
To learn 'tis not my heart alone
That bears thy sacred name.
80
UNITED
Here buried side by side
We long have waited with between us two
A place for you.
We long have waited with between us two
A place for you.
The Powers of Darkness tried
To chill our hearts to ashes; but behold
They grew not cold.
To chill our hearts to ashes; but behold
They grew not cold.
81
You journey far and wide;
Our eyes were on you till they turned your way
To where we lay.
Our eyes were on you till they turned your way
To where we lay.
Henceforth, all fate defied,
Our kindred dust commingling, three in one—
We slumber, son.
Our kindred dust commingling, three in one—
We slumber, son.
HIS MISSION
'Twas not for gain of glittering gold he trodAlaska's frozen loin;
82
On colder hearts to coin!
83
EXCLUDED
Into the charnel hall of fameThe dead alone should go.
Then write not there the living name
Of Edgar Allan Poe.
84
[His Peck-ability to show]
His Peck-ability to showLet Harry Thurston Peck at Poe,
And thank his stars like Matthews, Brander,
That Poe is silent now to slander,
Or by the scourge with which they score him,
He'd make them bite the dust before him.
TO EDGAR ALLAN POE
On the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death.
Dead fifty years? No so,Nay, fifty years ago
Death, obloquy and spite,
To curse his ashes came.
But lo, the living light
Beneath the breath of shame
Indignant, spurned the night,
And withered them in flame.
85
THE UNITED STATES TO THE PHILIPINOS
We've come to give you LibertyTo do what'er we choose;
Or clean extermination,
If you venture to refuse.
89
TO A VIRGINIAN AT THE HOT SPRINGS
Nurtured upon my Mother's knee,From this, her mountain breast, apart;
Here nearer heaven I seem to be,
And closer to her heart.
“With my compliments to my old Amelia neighbor, Garland Taliaferro.”
96
BEYOND
The River to the Sea,In language of the Land,
Interpreter would be
Of life beyond the strand.
Of billowy heights that never fall
When Winds have gone their way,
Of waving forests, dark and tall,
Of flocks, and herds, and fertile vales,
Of warbling birds and blossom-spray
That scents the wandering gales.
Alas! 'tis all a mystery!
She does not understand.
DUSK
Alone I am, but lonelier
The Twilight seems to be;
The lengthening Shadows leading her
To human sympathy.
The Twilight seems to be;
The lengthening Shadows leading her
To human sympathy.
No word, but a mysterious clue
To feelings deeper far,
She fashions in the trembling dew,
And in the steadfast star.
To feelings deeper far,
She fashions in the trembling dew,
And in the steadfast star.
97
MATINS
Still sing the Morning Stars remote
With echoes now unheard,
Save in the scintillating note
Of some dawn-wakened bird
With echoes now unheard,
Save in the scintillating note
Of some dawn-wakened bird
Whose heart—a fountain in the light—
Prolongs the limpid strain
Till on the borderland of Night,
The Stars begin again.
Prolongs the limpid strain
Till on the borderland of Night,
The Stars begin again.
A TRYSTING PLACE
As stars amid the darkness seen,
When flows the deepening dawn between
To cover them from sight,
O'erleap the spaces of the dark,
And, spark to quickening sister-spark,
Commingle in the light;
When flows the deepening dawn between
To cover them from sight,
O'erleap the spaces of the dark,
And, spark to quickening sister-spark,
Commingle in the light;
E'en so a solitary way
Do we, Beloved, day by day,
In weariness and pain,
Climb desolate from steep to steep,
Till in the shadowy Vale of Sleep
Our spirits blend again.
Do we, Beloved, day by day,
In weariness and pain,
Climb desolate from steep to steep,
Till in the shadowy Vale of Sleep
Our spirits blend again.
132
A CHRISTMAS CHIME
At Christmas time from clime to clime
Each star to star doth sweetly chime,
Till all the heavens are ringed with rhyme
Each star to star doth sweetly chime,
Till all the heavens are ringed with rhyme
Then loosed above, a note thereof
Floats downward like a wandering dove,
And all the world is ringed with Love!
Floats downward like a wandering dove,
And all the world is ringed with Love!
| [Poems by Tabb in] Father Tabb | |