At sunset, as I calmly stand, A stranger on an alien strand, Familiar as my childhood's home Pierce through the dark, oblivious brain, Of countless æons; memories far, Unknown, scarce seen, whose flickering grace PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE. THE PASSIONATE READER TO HIS POET DOTH it not thrill thee, Poet, Dead and dust though thou art, To feel how I press thy singing Take it at night to my pillow, And again when the delicate morning See how I bathe thy pages Here in the light of the sun; The breezes shall run. Feel how I take thy poem And bury within it my face, As I press'd it last night in the heart of a flower, Think, as I love thee, Poet, A thousand love beside, Dear women love to press thee too Art thou not happy, Poet? I sometimes dream that I For such a fragrant fame as thine Would gladly sing and die. Say, wilt thou change thy glory For this same youth of mine? And I will give my days i' the sun For that great song of thine. RICHARD LE GALLIENNE. AN OLD MAN'S IDYL By the waters of Life we sat together, When skies were purple and breath was praise, By the rivers of Life we walk'd together, And lighter than any linnet's feather And up from the rosy morrows grew A sound that seem'd like a marriage chime. In the meadows of Life we stray'd together, And under the benison of the Father Our hearts, like the lambs, skipp'd to and fro; And glad tears shone in the daisies' eyes, Who was with us, and what was round us, Laugh at the footsteps of decay. Harms of the world have come unto us, And we hear the tread of the years move by, But my darling does not fear to die, So we sit by our household fires together, The wind blows cold, - 't is growing late; Well, well! we have garner'd all our sheaves, RICHARD Realf. THE FLIGHT OF YOUTH * THERE are gains for all our losses, There are balms for all our pain: We are stronger, and are better, Under manhood's sterner reign: *From "The Poetical Writings of Richard Henry Stoddard"; copyright, 1880, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Follow'd youth, with flying feet, But it never comes again. RICHARD HENRY STODDARD. SOME DAY OF DAYS SOME day, some day of days, threading the street I shall behold your face! Some day, some day of days, thus may we meet. Touch whitely vale and hill. Through every vein with summer on that day. Once more life's perfect youth will all come back, I shall stand fresh and fair, Once more my perfect youth will nothing lack. I shut my eyes now, thinking how 't will be Forget the dismal dole Of dreary Fate's dark, separating sea; And glance to glance, and hand to hand in greeting, The past with all its fears, Its silences and tears, Its lonely, yearning years, Shall vanish in the moment of that meeting. NORA PERRY. "DISTANCE LENDS ENCHANTMENT" THE sails we see on the ocean Are as white as white can be But never a one in the harbor e; Is as white as the sails at sea. And the clouds that crown the mountain Turn to cold gray mist and vapor A BOOK ANONYMOUS. He ate and drank the precious words, He knew no more that he was poor, Was but a book. What liberty A loosen'd spirit brings! EMILY DICKINSON. THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES THE night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done. FRANCIS W. BOURDILLON. SLEEPING AND DREAMING I SOFTLY sink into the bath of sleep; I float all night in the ethereal sea That drowns my pain and weariness in balm, Careless of where its currents carry me, Or settle into calm. |