TWO POEMS TO RACHEL DANIEL
I
[“Oh pudgy podgy pup!]
“Oh pudgy podgy pup!
Why did they wake you up?
Those crude nocturnal yells
Are not like silver bells:
Nor ever would recall
Sweet Music's ‘dying fall.’
They rather bring to mind
The bitter winter wind
Through keyholes shrieking shrilly
When nights are dark and chilly:
Or like some dire duett,
Or quarrelsome quartette,
Of cats who chant their joys
With execrable noise,
And murder Time and Tune
To vex the patient Moon!”
Nov. 1880.
II
FOR “THE GARLAND OF RACHEL” (1881)
What hand may wreathe thy natal crown,
O tiny tender Spirit-blossom,
That out of Heaven hast fluttered down
Into this Earth's cold bosom?
And how shall mortal bard aspire—
All sin-begrimed and sorrow-laden—
To welcome, with the Seraph-choir,
A pure and perfect Maiden?
Are not God's minstrels ever near,
Flooding with joy the woodland mazes?
Which shall we summon, Baby dear,
To carol forth thy praises?
With sweet sad song the Nightingale
May soothe the broken hearts that languish
Where graves are green—the orphans' wail,
The widow's lonely anguish:
The Turtle-dove with amorous coo
May chide the blushing maid that lingers
To twine her bridal wreath anew
With weak and trembling fingers:
But human loves and human woes
Would dim the radiance of thy glory—
Only the Lark such music knows
As fits thy stainless story.
The world may listen as it will—
She recks not, to the skies up-springing:
Beyond our ken she singeth still
For very joy of singing.
