John Marr And Other Poems By Herman Melville

JOHN MARR AND OTHER POEMS By HERMAN MELVILLE _With An Introductory Note By_HENRY CHAPIN MCMXXII Introductory Note Melville’s verse printed for the most part privately in small editions from middle life onward after his great prose work had been written, taken as a whole, is of an amateurish and uneven quality. In it, however, that loveable freshness of personality, which his philosophical dejection never quenched, is everywhere in evidence. It is clear that he did not set himself to master the poet’s art, yet through the mask of conventional verse which often falls into doggerel, the voice of a true poet is heard. In selecting the pieces for this volume I have put in the vigorous sea verses of John Marr in their entirety and added those others from his Battle Pieces, Timoleon, etc., that best indicate the quality of their author’s personality. The prose supplement to battle pieces has been included because it does so much to explain the feeling of his war verse and further because it is such a remarkably wise and clear commentary upon those confused and troublous days of post-war reconstruction. H. C. CONTENTS Introductory Note John Marr And Other Poems JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS BRIDEGROOM DICK TOM DEADLIGHT JACK ROY Sea Pieces THE HAGLETS THE AEOLIAN HARP TO THE MASTER OF THE “METEOR” FAR OFF SHORE THE MAN-OF-WAR HAWK THE FIGURE-HEAD THE GOOD CRAFT “SNOW BIRD” OLD COUNSEL THE TUFT OF KELP THE MALDIVE SHARK TO NED CROSSING THE TROPICS THE BERG THE ENVIABLE ISLES PEBBLES Poems From Timoleon LINES TRACED UNDER AN IMAGE OF AMOR THREATENING THE NIGHT MARCH THE RAVAGED VILLA THE NEW ZEALOT TO THE SUN MONODY LONE FOUNTS THE BENCH OF BOORS ART THE ENTHUSIAST SHELLEY’S VISION THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES HERBA SANTA OFF CAPE COLONNA THE APPARITION L’ ENVOI Supplement Poems From Battle Pieces THE PORTENT FROM THE CONFLICT OF CONVICTIONS THE MARCH INTO VIRGINIA BALL’S BLUFF THE STONE FLEET THE “TEMERAIRE” A UTILITARIAN VIEW OF THE “MONITOR’S” FIGHT MALVERN HILL STONEWALL JACKSON THE HOUSE-TOP CHATTANOOGA ON THE PHOTOGRAPH OF A CORPS COMMANDER THE SWAMP ANGEL SHERIDAN AT CEDAR CREEK IN THE PRISON PEN THE COLLEGE COLONEL THE MARTYR REBEL COLOR-BEARERS AT SHILOH AURORA BOREALIS THE RELEASED REBEL PRISONER “FORMERLY A SLAVE” ON THE SLAIN COLLEGIANS AMERICA INSCRIPTION THE FORTITUDE OF THE NORTH THE MOUND BY THE LAKE ON THE SLAIN AT CHICKAMAUGA AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT ON THE GRAVE OF A YOUNG CAVALRY OFFICER KILLED IN THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA A REQUIEM COMMEMORATIVE OF A NAVAL VICTORY A MEDITATION Poems From Mardi WE FISH INVOCATION DIRGE MARLENA PIPE SONG SONG OF YOOMY GOLD THE LAND OF LOVE Poems From Clarel DIRGE EPILOGUE JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS Since as in night’s deck-watch ye show, Why, lads, so silent here to me,Your watchmate of times long ago?Once, for all the darkling sea,You your voices raised how clearly, Striking in when tempest sung;Hoisting up the storm-sail cheerly, Life is storm–let storm! you rung.Taking things as fated merely,Childlike though the world ye spanned; Nor holding unto life too dearly,Ye who held your lives in hand–Skimmers, who on oceans fourPetrels were, and larks ashore. O, not from memory lightly flung,Forgot, like strains no more availing, The heart to music haughtier strung;Nay, frequent near me, never staleing, Whose good feeling kept ye young.Like tides that enter creek or stream, Ye come, ye visit me, or seemSwimming out from seas of faces,Alien myriads memory traces,To enfold me in a dream! I yearn as ye. But rafts that strain, Parted, shall they lock again?Twined we were, entwined, then riven, Ever to new embracements driven,Shifting gulf-weed of the main!And how if one here shift no more,Lodged by the flinging surge ashore? Nor less, as now, in eve’s decline,Your shadowy fellowship is mine.Ye float around me, form and feature:– Tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled; Barbarians of man’s simpler nature,Unworldly servers of the world.Yea, present all, and dear to me,Though shades, or scouring China’s sea. Whither, whither, merchant-sailors,Whitherward now in roaring gales?Competing still, ye huntsman-whalers, In leviathan’s wake what boat prevails?And man-of-war’s men, whereaway?If now no dinned drum beat to quarters On the wilds of midnight waters–Foemen looming through the spray;Do yet your gangway lanterns, streaming, Vainly strive to pierce below,When, tilted from the slant plank gleaming, A brother you see to darkness go? But, gunmates lashed in shotted canvas, If where long watch-below ye keep,Never the shrill ”All hands up hammocks!” Breaks the spell that charms your sleep, And summoning trumps might vainly call,And booming guns implore–A beat, a heart-beat musters all,One heart-beat at heart-core.It musters. But to clasp, retain;To see you at the halyards main–To hear your chorus once again! BRIDEGROOM DICK1876 Sunning ourselves in October on a day Balmy as spring, though the year was in decay, I lading my pipe, she stirring her tea,My old woman she says to me,“Feel ye, old man, how the season mellows?” And why should I not, blessed heart alive, Here mellowing myself, past sixty-five,To think o’ the May-time o’ pennoned young fellowsThis stripped old hulk here for years may survive. Ere yet, long ago, we were spliced, Bonny Blue, (Silvery it gleams down the moon-glade o’ time, Ah, sugar in the bowl and berries in the prime!) Coxswain I o’ the Commodore’s crew,–Under me the fellows that manned his fine gig, Spinning him ashore, a king in full fig. Chirrupy even when crosses rubbed me,Bridegroom Dick lieutenants dubbed me. Pleasant at a yarn, Bob o’ Linkum in a song, Diligent in duty and nattily arrayed,Favored I was, wife, and fleeted right along; And though but a tot for such a tall grade, A high quartermaster at last I was made. All this, old lassie, you have heard before, But you listen again for the sake e’en o’ me; No babble stales o’ the good times o’ yore To Joan, if Darby the babbler be. Babbler?–O’ what? Addled brains, they forget!O–quartermaster I; yes, the signals set, Hoisted the ensign, mended it when frayed, Polished up the binnacle, minded the helm, And prompt every order blithely obeyed.To me would the officers say a word cheery– Break through the starch o’ the quarter-deck realm;His coxswain late, so the Commodore’s pet. Ay, and in night-watches long and weary, Bored nigh to death with the navy etiquette, Yearning, too, for fun, some younker, a cadet, Dropping for time each vain bumptious trick, Boy-like would unbend to Bridegroom Dick. But a limit there was–a check, d’ ye see: Those fine young aristocrats knew their degree. Well, stationed aft where their lordships keep,–Seldom going forward excepting to sleep,– I, boozing now on by-gone years,My betters recall along with my peers. Recall them? Wife, but I see them plain: Alive, alert, every man stirs again.Ay, and again on the lee-side pacing, My spy-glass carrying, a truncheon in show, Turning at the taffrail, my footsteps retracing, Proud in my duty, again methinks I go.And Dave, Dainty Dave, I mark where he stands,Our trim sailing-master, to time the high-noon, That thingumbob sextant perplexing eyes and hands,Squinting at the sun, or twigging o’ the moon; Then, touching his cap to Old Chock-a-Block Commanding the quarter-deck,–“Sir, twelve o’clock.” Where sails he now, that trim sailing-master, Slender, yes, as the ship’s sky-s’l pole? Dimly I mind me of some sad disaster–Dainty Dave was dropped from the navy-roll! And ah, for old Lieutenant Chock-a-Block– Fast, wife, chock-fast to death’s black dock! Buffeted about the obstreperous ocean,Fleeted his life, if lagged his promotion. Little girl, they are all, all gone, I think, Leaving Bridegroom Dick here with lids that wink. Where is Ap Catesby? The fights fought of yoreFamed him, and laced him with epaulets, and more.But fame is a wake that after-wakes cross, And the waters wallow all, and laugh _Where’s the loss?But John Bull’s bullet in his shoulder bearing Ballasted Ap in his long sea-faring.The middies they ducked to the man who had messedWith Decatur in the gun-room, or forward pressedFighting beside Perry, Hull, Porter, and the rest. Humped veteran o’ the Heart-o’-Oak war, Moored long in haven where the old heroes are, Never on you did the iron-clads jar!Your open deck when the boarder assailed, The frank old heroic hand-to-hand then availed. But where’s Guert Gan? Still heads he the van? As before Vera-Cruz, when he dashed splashing throughThe blue rollers sunned, in his brave gold-and- blue,And, ere his cutter in keel took the strand, Aloft waved his sword on the hostile land! Went up the cheering, the quick chanticleering; All hands vying–all colors flying:“Cock-a-doodle-doo!” and “Row, boys, row!” “Hey, Starry Banner!” “Hi, Santa Anna!”Old Scott’s young dash at Mexico. Fine forces o’ the land, fine forces o’ the sea, Fleet, army, and flotilla–tell, heart o’ me, Tell, if you can, whereaway now they be! But ah, how to speak of the hurricane unchained–The Union’s strands parted in the hawser over-strained;Our flag blown to shreds, anchors gone altogether–The dashed fleet o’ States in Secession’s foul weather. Lost in the smother o’ that wide public stress, In hearts, private hearts, what ties there were snapped!Tell, Hal–vouch, Will, o’ the ward-room mess, On you how the riving thunder-bolt clapped. With a bead in your eye and beads in your glass, And a grip o’ the flipper, it was part and pass: “Hal, must it be: Well, if come indeed the shock,To North or to South, let the victory cleave, Vaunt it he may on his dung-hill the cock, But Uncle Sam’s eagle never crow will, believe.” Sentiment: ay, while suspended hung all, Ere the guns against Sumter opened there the ball,And partners were taken, and the red dance began,War’s red dance o’ death!–Well, we, to a man, We sailors o’ the North, wife, how could we lag?–Strike with your kin, and you stick to the flag! But to sailors o’ the South that easy way was barred.To some, dame, believe (and I speak o’ what I know),Wormwood the trial and the Uzzite’s black shard;And the faithfuller the heart, the crueller the throe.Duty? It pulled with more than one string, This way and that, and anyhow a sting.The flag and your kin, how be true unto both? If either plight ye keep, then ye break the other troth.But elect here they must, though the casuists were out;Decide–hurry up–and throttle every doubt. Of all these thrills thrilled at keelson, and throes,Little felt the shoddyites a-toasting o’ their toes;In mart and bazar Lucre chuckled the huzza, Coining the dollars in the bloody mint of war. But in men, gray knights o’ the Order o’ Scars, And brave boys bound by vows unto Mars,Nature grappled honor, intertwisting in the strife:–But some cut the knot with a thoroughgoing knife.For how when the drums beat? How in the fray In Hampton Roads on the fine balmy day? There a lull, wife, befell–drop o’ silent in the din.Let us enter that silence ere the belchings re-begin.Through a ragged rift aslant in the cannonade’s smokeAn iron-clad reveals her repellent broadside Bodily intact. But a frigate, all oak,Shows honeycombed by shot, and her deck crimson-dyed.And a trumpet from port of the iron-clad hails, Summoning the other, whose flag never trails: “Surrender that frigate, Will! Surrender, Or I will sink her–ram, and end her!” ‘T was Hal. And Will, from the naked heart-o’-oak, Will, the old messmate, minus trumpet, spoke, Informally intrepid,–“Sink her, and be damned!”* [* Historic.]Enough. Gathering way, the iron-clad rammed. The frigate, heeling over, on the wave threw a dusk.Not sharing in the slant, the clapper of her bell The fixed metal struck–uinvoked struck the knellOf the Cumberland stillettoed by the Merrimac’s tusk;While, broken in the wound underneath the gun-deck,Like a sword-fish’s blade in leviathan waylaid, The tusk was left infixed in the fast-foundering wreck.There, dungeoned in the cockpit, the wounded go down,And the chaplain with them. But the surges upliftThe prone dead from deck, and for moment they driftWashed with the swimmers, and the spent swimmers drown.Nine fathom did she sink,–erect, though hid from lightSave her colors unsurrendered and spars that kept the height. Nay, pardon, old aunty! Wife, never let it fall, That big started tear that hovers on the brim; I forgot about your nephew and the Merrimac’s ball;No more then of her, since it summons up him. But talk o’ fellows’ hearts in the wine’s genial cup:–Trap them in the fate, jam them in the strait, Guns speak their hearts then, and speak right up.The troublous colic o’ intestine war It sets the bowels o’ affection ajar.But, lord, old dame, so spins the whizzing world, A humming-top, ay, for the little boy-gods Flogging it well with their smart little rods, Tittering at time and the coil uncurled. Now, now, sweetheart, you sidle away, No, never you like that kind o’ gay; But sour if I get, giving truth her due, Honey-sweet forever, wife, will Dick be to you! But avast with the War! ‘Why recall racking daysSince set up anew are the slip’s started stays? Nor less, though the gale we have left behind, Well may the heave o’ the sea remind.It irks me now, as it troubled me then, To think o’ the fate in the madness o’ men. If Dick was with Farragut on the night-river, When the boom-chain we burst in the fire-raft’s glare,That blood-dyed the visage as red as the liver; In the Battle for the Bay too if Dick had a share,And saw one aloft a-piloting the war– Trumpet in the whirlwind, a Providence in place–Our Admiral old whom the captains huzza, Dick joys in the man nor brags about the race. But better, wife, I like to booze on the days Ere the Old Order foundered in these very frays,And tradition was lost and we learned strange ways.Often I think on the brave cruises then; Re-sailing them in memory, I hail the press o’ menOn the gunned promenade where rolling they go,Ere the dog-watch expire and break up the show.The Laced Caps I see between forward guns; Away from the powder-room they puff the cigar;“Three days more, hey, the donnas and the dons!”“Your Zeres widow, will you hunt her up, Starr?”The Laced Caps laugh, and the bright waves too;Very jolly, very wicked, both sea and crew, Nor heaven looks sour on either, I guess, Nor Pecksniff he bosses the gods’ high mess. Wistful ye peer, wife, concerned for my head, And how best to get me betimes to my bed. But king o’ the club, the gayest golden spark, Sailor o’ sailors, what sailor do I mark? Tom Tight, Tom Tight, no fine fellow finer, A cutwater nose, ay, a spirited soul;But, bowsing away at the well-brewed bowl, He never bowled back from that last voyage to China. Tom was lieutenant in the brig-o’-war famed When an officer was hung for an arch-mutineer, But a mystery cleaved, and the captain was blamed,And a rumpus too raised, though his honor it was clear.And Tom he would say, when the mousers would try him,And with cup after cup o’ Burgundy ply him: “Gentlemen, in vain with your wassail you beset,For the more I tipple, the tighter do I get.” No blabber, no, not even with the can–True to himself and loyal to his clan. Tom blessed us starboard and d–d us larboard, Right down from rail to the streak o’ the garboard.Nor less, wife, we liked him.–Tom was a man In contrast queer with Chaplain Le Fan,Who blessed us at morn, and at night yet again, D–ning us only in decorous strain;Preaching ‘tween the guns–each cutlass in its place–From text that averred old Adam a hard case. I see him–Tom–on horse-block standing, Trumpet at mouth, thrown up all amain,An elephant’s bugle, vociferous demanding Of topmen aloft in the hurricane of rain, “Letting that sail there your faces flog? Manhandle it, men, and you’ll get the good grog!”O Tom, but he knew a blue-jacket’s ways, And how a lieutenant may genially haze;Only a sailor sailors heartily praise. Wife, where be all these chaps, I wonder? Trumpets in the tempest, terrors in the fray, Boomed their commands along the deck like thunder;But silent is the sod, and thunder dies away. But Captain Turret, ”Old Hemlock” tall, (A leaning tower when his tank brimmed all,) Manoeuvre out alive from the war did he? Or, too old for that, drift under the lee? Kentuckian colossal, who, touching at Madeira, The huge puncheon shipped o’ prime Santa-Clara;Then rocked along the deck so solemnly! No whit the less though judicious was enough In dealing with the Finn who made the great huff;Our three-decker’s giant, a grand boatswain’s mate,Manliest of men in his own natural senses; But driven stark mad by the devil’s drugged stuff,Storming all aboard from his run-ashore late, Challenging to battle, vouchsafing no pretenses, A reeling King Ogg, delirious in power,The quarter-deck carronades he seemed to make cower.“Put him in brig there!” said Lieutenant Marrot.“Put him in brig!” back he mocked like a parrot;“Try it, then!” swaying a fist like Thor’s sledge,And making the pigmy constables hedge– Ship’s corporals and the master-at-arms. “In brig there, I say!”–They dally no more; Like hounds let slip on a desperate boar, Together they pounce on the formidable Finn, Pinion and cripple and hustle him in.Anon, under sentry, between twin guns, He slides off in drowse, and the long night runs. Morning brings a summons. Whistling it calls, Shrilled through the pipes of the boatswain’s four aids;Trilled down the hatchways along the dusk halls:Muster to the Scourge!–Dawn of doom and its blast!As from cemeteries raised, sailors swarm before the mast,Tumbling up the ladders from the ship’s nether shades. Keeping in the background and taking small part,Lounging at their ease, indifferent in face, Behold the trim marines uncompromised in heart;Their Major, buttoned up, near the staff finds room–The staff o’ lieutenants standing grouped in their place.All the Laced Caps o’ the ward-room come, The Chaplain among them, disciplined and dumb.The blue-nosed boatswain, complexioned like slag,Like a blue Monday lours–his implements in bag.Executioners, his aids, a couple by him stand, At a nod there the thongs to receive from his hand. Never venturing a caveat whatever may betide, Though functionally here on humanity’s side, The grave Surgeon shows, like the formal physicianAttending the rack o’ the Spanish Inquisition. The angel o’ the “brig” brings his prisoner up; Then, steadied by his old Santa-Clara, a sup, Heading all erect, the ranged assizes there, Lo, Captain Turret, and under starred bunting,(A florid full face and fine silvered hair,) Gigantic the yet greater giant confronting. Now the culprit he liked, as a tall captain can A Titan subordinate and true sailor-man; And frequent he’d shown it–no worded advance,But flattering the Finn with a well-timed glance. But what of that now? In the martinet-mien Read the Articles of War, heed the naval routine;While, cut to the heart a dishonor there to win, Restored to his senses, stood the Anak Finn; In racked self-control the squeezed tears peeping,Scalding the eye with repressed inkeeping. Discipline must be; the scourge is deemed due. But ah for the sickening and strange heart- benumbing,Compassionate abasement in shipmates that view; Such a grand champion shamed there succumbing! “Brown, tie him up.”–The cord he brooked: How else?–his arms spread apart–never threaping;No, never he flinched, never sideways he looked, Peeled to the waistband, the marble flesh creeping,Lashed by the sleet the officious winds urge. In function his fellows their fellowship merge– The twain standing nigh–the two boatswain’s mates,Sailors of his grade, ay, and brothers of his mess.With sharp thongs adroop the junior one awaitsThe word to uplift. “Untie him–so!Submission is enough, Man, you may go.” Then, promenading aft, brushing fat Purser Smart,“Flog? Never meant it–hadn’t any heart. Degrade that tall fellow? “–Such, wife, was he, Old Captain Turret, who the brave wine could stow.Magnanimous, you think?–But what does Dick see?Apron to your eye! Why, never fell a blow; Cheer up, old wifie, ‘t was a long time ago. But where’s that sore one, crabbed and-severe, Lieutenant Lon Lumbago, an arch scrutineer? Call the roll to-day, would he answer–Here! When the Blixum’s fellows to quarters musteredHow he’d lurch along the lane of gun-crews clustered,Testy as touchwood, to pry and to peer. Jerking his sword underneath larboard arm, He ground his worn grinders to keep himself calm.Composed in his nerves, from the fidgets set free,Tell, Sweet Wrinkles, alive now is he, In Paradise a parlor where the even tempers be? Where’s Commander All-a-Tanto?Where’s Orlop Bob singing up from below? Where’s Rhyming Ned? has he spun his last canto?Where’s Jewsharp Jim? Where’s Ringadoon Joe?Ah, for the music over and done,The band all dismissed save the droned trombone!Where’s Glenn o’ the gun-room, who loved Hot-Scotch–Glen, prompt and cool in a perilous watch? Where’s flaxen-haired Phil? a gray lieutenant? Or rubicund, flying a dignified pennant? But where sleeps his brother?–the cruise it was o’er,But ah, for death’s grip that welcomed him ashore!Where’s Sid, the cadet, so frank in his brag, Whose toast was audacious–“Here’s Sid, and Sid’s flag!”Like holiday-craft that have sunk unknown, May a lark of a lad go lonely down?Who takes the census under the sea? Can others like old ensigns be,Bunting I hoisted to flutter at the gaff– Rags in end that once were flagsGallant streaming from the staff? Such scurvy doom could the chances deal To Top-Gallant Harry and Jack Genteel?Lo, Genteel Jack in hurricane weather, Shagged like a bear, like a red lion roaring; But O, so fine in his chapeau and feather, In port to the ladies never once jawing; All bland politesse, how urbane was he– ”Oui, mademoiselle”–“Ma chere amie!” ‘T was Jack got up the ball at Naples, Gay in the old Ohio glorious;His hair was curled by the berth-deck barber, Never you’d deemed him a cub of rude Boreas; In tight little pumps, with the grand dames in rout,A-flinging his shapely foot all about; His watch-chain with love’s jeweled tokens abounding,Curls ambrosial shaking out odors,Waltzing along the batteries, astounding The gunner glum and the grim-visaged loaders. Wife, where be all these blades, I wonder, Pennoned fine fellows, so strong, so gay? Never their colors with a dip dived under; Have they hauled them down in a lack-lustre day,Or beached their boats in the Far, Far Away? Hither and thither, blown wide asunder,Where’s this fleet, I wonder and wonder. Slipt their cables, rattled their adieu, (Whereaway pointing? to what rendezvous?) Out of sight, out of mind, like the crack Constitution,And many a keel time never shall renew– Bon Homme Dick o’ the buff Revolution, The Black Cockade and the staunch True-Blue. Doff hats to Decatur! But where is his blazon? Must merited fame endure time’s wrong–Glory’s ripe grape wizen up to a raisin? Yes! for Nature teems, and the years are strong,And who can keep the tally o’ the names that fleet along! But his frigate, wife, his bride? Would blacksmiths brownInto smithereens smite the solid old renown? Rivetting the bolts in the iron-clad’s shell, Hark to the hammers with a rat-tat-tat; “Handier a derby than a laced cocked hat! The Monitor was ugly, but she served us right well,Better than the Cumberland, a beauty and the belle.” Better than the Cumberland!–Heart alive in me!That battlemented hull, Tantallon o’ the sea, Kicked in, as at Boston the taxed chests o’ tea! Ay, spurned by the ram, once a tall, shapely craft,But lopped by the Rebs to an iron-beaked raft–A blacksmith’s unicorn in armor cap-a-pie. Under the water-line a ram’s blow is dealt: And foul fall the knuckles that strike below the belt.Nor brave the inventions that serve to replace The openness of valor while dismantling the grace. Aloof from all this and the never-ending game, Tantamount to teetering, plot and counterplot; Impenetrable armor–all-perforating shot; Aloof, bless God, ride the war-ships of old, A grand fleet moored in the roadstead of fame; Not submarine sneaks with them are enrolled; Their long shadows dwarf us, their flags are as flame. Don’t fidget so, wife; an old man’s passion Amounts to no more than this smoke that I puff;There, there, now, buss me in good old fashion; A died-down candle will flicker in the snuff. But one last thing let your old babbler say, What Decatur’s coxswain said who was long ago hearsed,“Take in your flying-kites, for there comes a lubber’s dayWhen gallant things will go, and the three- deckers first.” My pipe is smoked out, and the grog runs slack;But bowse away, wife, at your blessed Bohea; This empty can here must needs solace me– Nay, sweetheart, nay; I take that back;Dick drinks from your eyes and he finds no lack! TOM DEADLIGHT During a tempest encountered homeward-bound from the Mediterranean, a grizzled petty-officer, one of the two captains of the forecastle, dying at night in his hammock, swung in the sick-bay under the tiered gun-decks of the British Dreadnaught, 98, wandering in his mind, though with glimpses of sanity, and starting up at whiles, sings by snatches his good-bye and last injunctions to two messmates, his watchers, one of whom fans the fevered tar with the flap of his old sou’wester. Some names and phrases, with here and there a line, or part of one; these, in his aberration, wrested into incoherency from their original connection and import, he voluntarily derives, as he does the measure, from a famous old sea-ditty, whose cadences, long rife, and now humming in the collapsing brain, attune the last flutterings of distempered thought. Farewell and adieu to you noble hearties,– Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain, For I’ve received orders for to sail for the Deadman, But hope with the grand fleet to see you again. I have hove my ship to, with main-top-sail aback, boys; I have hove my ship to, for the strike soundings clear–The black scud a’flying; but, by God’s blessing, dam’ me, Right up the Channel for the Deadman I’ll steer. I have worried through the waters that are called the Doldrums, And growled at Sargasso that clogs while ye grope–Blast my eyes, but the light-ship is hid by the mist, lads:– Flying Dutchman–odds bobbs–off the Cape of Good Hope! But what’s this I feel that is fanning my cheek, Matt? The white goney’s wing?–how she rolls!– ‘t is the Cape!–Give my kit to the mess, Jock, for kin none is mine, none; And tell Holy Joe to avast with the crape. Dead reckoning, says Joe, it won’t do to go by; But they doused all the glims, Matt, in sky t’ other night.Dead reckoning is good for to sail for the Deadman; And Tom Deadlight he thinks it may reckon near right. The signal!–it streams for the grand fleet to anchor. The captains–the trumpets–the hullabaloo! Stand by for blue-blazes, and mind your shank-painters, For the Lord High Admiral, he’s squinting at you! But give me my tot, Matt, before I roll over; Jock, let’s have your flipper, it’s good for to feel;And don’t sew me up without baccy in mouth, boys, And don’t blubber like lubbers when I turn up my keel. JACK ROY Kept up by relays of generations young Never dies at halyards the blithe chorus sung; While in sands, sounds, and seas where the storm-petrels cry,Dropped mute around the globe, these halyard singers lie.Short-lived the clippers for racing-cups that run,And speeds in life’s career many a lavish mother’s-son. But thou, manly king o’ the old Splendid’s crew,The ribbons o’ thy hat still a-fluttering, should fly–A challenge, and forever, nor the bravery should rue.Only in a tussle for the starry flag high, When ’tis piety to do, and privilege to die. Then, only then, would heaven think to lop Such a cedar as the captain o’ the Splendid’s main-top:A belted sea-gentleman; a gallant, off-hand Mercutio indifferent in life’s gay command. Magnanimous in humor; when the splintering shot fell,“Tooth-picks a-plenty, lads; thank ’em with a shell!” Sang Larry o’ the Cannakin, smuggler o’ the wine,At mess between guns, lad in jovial recline: “In Limbo our Jack he would chirrup up a cheer,The martinet there find a chaffing mutineer; From a thousand fathoms down under hatches o’ your Hades,He’d ascend in love-ditty, kissing fingers to your ladies!” Never relishing the knave, though allowing for the menial,Nor overmuch the king, Jack, nor prodigally genial.Ashore on liberty he flashed in escapade, Vaulting over life in its levelness of grade, Like the dolphin off Africa in rainbow a-sweeping–Arch iridescent shot from seas languid sleeping. Larking with thy life, if a joy but a toy, Heroic in thy levity wert thou, Jack Roy. Sea Pieces THE HAGLETS By chapel bare, with walls sea-beatThe lichened urns in wilds are lost About a carved memorial stoneThat shows, decayed and coral-mossed, A form recumbent, swords at feet,Trophies at head, and kelp for a winding-sheet. I invoke thy ghost, neglected fane,Washed by the waters’ long lament;I adjure the recumbent effigyTo tell the cenotaph’s intent–Reveal why fagotted swords are at feet, Why trophies appear and weeds are the winding-sheet. By open ports the Admiral sits,And shares repose with guns that tell Of power that smote the arm’d Plate Fleet Whose sinking flag-ship’s colors fell;But over the Admiral floats in light His squadron’s flag, the red-cross Flag of the White. The eddying waters whirl astern,The prow, a seedsman, sows the spray; With bellying sails and buckling sparsThe black hull leaves a Milky Way;Her timbers thrill, her batteries roll, She revelling speeds exulting with pennon at pole, But ah, for standards captive trailed For all their scutcheoned castles’ pride– Castilian towers that dominate Spain,Naples, and either Ind beside;Those haughty towers, armorial ones, Rue the salute from the Admiral’s dens of guns. Ensigns and arms in trophy brave,Braver for many a rent and scar,The captor’s naval hall bedeck,Spoil that insures an earldom’s star– Toledoes great, grand draperies, too,Spain’s steel and silk, and splendors from Peru. But crippled part in splintering fight, The vanquished flying the victor’s flags, With prize-crews, under convoy-guns,Heavy the fleet from Opher drags–The Admiral crowding sail ahead,Foremost with news who foremost in conflict sped. But out from cloistral gallery dim,In early night his glance is thrown; He marks the vague reserve of heaven,He feels the touch of ocean lone;Then turns, in frame part undermined, Nor notes the shadowing wings that fan behind. There, peaked and gray, three haglets fly, And follow, follow fast in wakeWhere slides the cabin-lustre shy,And sharks from man a glamour take, Seething along the line of lightIn lane that endless rules the war-ship’s flight. The sea-fowl here, whose hearts none know, They followed late the flag-ship quelled, (As now the victor one) and longAbove her gurgling grave, shrill held With screams their wheeling rites–then sped Direct in silence where the victor led. Now winds less fleet, but fairer, blow, A ripple laps the coppered side,While phosphor sparks make ocean gleam, Like camps lit up in triumph wide;With lights and tinkling cymbals meet Acclaiming seas the advancing conqueror greet. But who a flattering tide may trust,Or favoring breeze, or aught in end?– Careening under startling blastsThe sheeted towers of sails impend; While, gathering bale, behind is bredA livid storm-bow, like a rainbow dead. At trumpet-call the topmen spring;And, urged by after-call in stress, Yet other tribes of tars ascendThe rigging’s howling wilderness;But ere yard-ends alert they win,Hell rules in heaven with hurricane-fire and din. The spars, athwart at spiry height,Like quaking Lima’s crosses rock;Like bees the clustering sailors cling Against the shrouds, or take the shockFlat on the swept yard-arms aslant, Dipped like the wheeling condor’s pinions gaunt. A LULL! and tongues of languid flameLick every boom, and lambent showElectric ‘gainst each face aloft;The herds of clouds with bellowings go: The black ship rears–beset–harassed,Then plunges far with luminous antlers vast. In trim betimes they turn from land, Some shivered sails and spars they stow; One watch, dismissed, they troll the can, While loud the billow thumps the bow–Vies with the fist that smites the board, Obstreperous at each reveller’s jovial word. Of royal oak by storms confirmed,The tested hull her lineage shows:Vainly the plungings whelm her prow– She rallies, rears, she sturdier grows:Each shot-hole plugged, each storm-sail home, With batteries housed she rams the watery dome. DIM seen adrift through driving scud, The wan moon shows in plight forlorn;Then, pinched in visage, fades and fades Like to the faces drowned at morn,When deeps engulfed the flag-ship’s crew, And, shrilling round, the inscrutable haglets flew. And still they fly, nor now they cry, But constant fan a second wake,Unflagging pinions ply and ply,Abreast their course intent they take; Their silence marks a stable mood,They patient keep their eager neighborhood. Plumed with a smoke, a confluent sea, Heaved in a combing pyramid full,Spent at its climax, in collapseDown headlong thundering stuns the hull: The trophy drops; but, reared again,Shows Mars’ high-altar and contemns the main. REBUILT it stands, the brag of arms,Transferred in site–no thought of where The sensitive needle keeps its place,And starts, disturbed, a quiverer there; The helmsman rubs the clouded glass–Peers in, but lets the trembling portent pass. Let pass as well his shipmates do(Whose dream of power no tremors jar) Fears for the fleet convoyed astern:“Our flag they fly, they share our star; Spain’s galleons great in hull are stout: Manned by our men–like us they’ll ride it out.” Tonight’s the night that ends the week– Ends day and week and month and year:A fourfold imminent flickering time, For now the midnight draws anear:Eight bells! and passing-bells they be– The Old year fades, the Old Year dies at sea. He launched them well. But shall the New Redeem the pledge the Old Year made,Or prove a self-asserting heir?But healthy hearts few qualms invade: By shot-chests grouped in bays ‘tween guns The gossips chat, the grizzled, sea-beat ones. And boyish dreams some graybeards blab: “To sea, my lads, we go no moreWho share the Acapulco prize;We’ll all night in, and bang the door; Our ingots red shall yield us bliss:Lads, golden years begin to-night with this!” Released from deck, yet waiting call, Glazed caps and coats baptized in storm, A watch of Laced Sleeves round the board Draw near in heart to keep them warm:“Sweethearts and wives!” clink, clink, they meet,And, quaffing, dip in wine their beards of sleet.“Ay, let the star-light stay withdrawn, So here her hearth-light memory fling,So in this wine-light cheer be born, And honor’s fellowship weld our ring–Honor! our Admiral’s aim foretold: A tomb or a trophy, and lo, ‘t is a trophy and gold!” But he, a unit, sole in rank,Apart needs keep his lonely state,The sentry at his guarded doorMute as by vault the sculptured Fate; Belted he sits in drowsy light,And, hatted, nods–the Admiral of the White. He dozes, aged with watches passed– Years, years of pacing to and fro;He dozes, nor attends the stirIn bullioned standards rustling low, Nor minds the blades whose secret thrill Perverts overhead the magnet’s Polar will:– LESS heeds the shadowing three that play And follow, follow fast in wake,Untiring wing and lidless eye–Abreast their course intent they take; Or sigh or sing, they hold for goodThe unvarying flight and fixed inveterate mood. In dream at last his dozings merge,In dream he reaps his victor’s fruit; The Flags-o’-the-Blue, the Flags-o’-the-Red, Dipped flags of his country’s fleets salute His Flag-o’-the-White in harbor proud–But why should it blench? Why turn to a painted shroud? The hungry seas they hound the hull, The sharks they dog the haglets’ flight; With one consent the winds, the wavesIn hunt with fins and wings unite,While drear the harps in cordage sound Remindful wails for old Armadas drowned. Ha–yonder! are they Northern Lights? Or signals flashed to warn or ward?Yea, signals lanced in breakers high; But doom on warning follows hard:While yet they veer in hope to shun, They strike! and thumps of hull and heart are one. But beating hearts a drum-beat calls And prompt the men to quarters go;Discipline, curbing nature, rules– Heroic makes who duty know:They execute the trump’s command,Or in peremptory places wait and stand. Yet cast about in blind amaze–As through their watery shroud they peer: “We tacked from land: then how betrayed? Have currents swerved us–snared us here?” None heed the blades that clash in place Under lamps dashed down that lit the magnet’s case. Ah, what may live, who mighty swim,Or boat-crew reach that shore forbid, Or cable span? Must victors drown–Perish, even as the vanquished did? Man keeps from man the stifled moan;They shouldering stand, yet each in heart how lone. Some heaven invoke; but rings of reefs Prayer and despair alike derideIn dance of breakers forked or peaked, Pale maniacs of the maddened tide;While, strenuous yet some end to earn, The haglets spin, though now no more astern. Like shuttles hurrying in the loomsAloft through rigging frayed they ply– Cross and recross–weave and inweave,Then lock the web with clinching cry Over the seas on seas that claspThe weltering wreck where gurgling ends the gasp. Ah, for the Plate-Fleet trophy now,The victor’s voucher, flags and arms; Never they’ll hang in Abbey oldAnd take Time’s dust with holier palms; Nor less content, in liquid night,Their captor sleeps–the Admiral of the White. Imbedded deep with shells And drifted treasure deep, Forever he sinks deeper in Unfathomable sleep– His cannon round him thrown, His sailors at his feet, The wizard sea enchanting them Where never haglets beat. On nights when meteors play And light the breakers dance, The Oreads from the caves With silvery elves advance; And up from ocean stream, And down from heaven far, The rays that blend in dream The abysm and the star. THE AEOLIAN HARP_At The Surf Inn List the harp in window wailing Stirred by fitful gales from sea:Shrieking up in mad crescendo– Dying down in plaintive key! Listen: less a strain idealThan Ariel’s rendering of the Real. What that Real is, let hint A picture stamped in memory’s mint. Braced well up, with beams aslant,Betwixt the continents sails the Phocion, For Baltimore bound from Alicant.Blue breezy skies white fleeces fleck Over the chill blue white-capped ocean:From yard-arm comes–“Wreck ho, a wreck!” Dismasted and adrift,Longtime a thing forsaken;Overwashed by every waveLike the slumbering kraken;Heedless if the billow roar,Oblivious of the lull,Leagues and leagues from shoal or shore, It swims–a levelled hull:Bulwarks gone–a shaven wreck,Nameless and a grass-green deck.A lumberman: perchance, in holdProstrate pines with hemlocks rolled. It has drifted, waterlogged,Till by trailing weeds beclogged: Drifted, drifted, day by day, Pilotless on pathless way.It has drifted till each plankIs oozy as the oyster-bank: Drifted, drifted, night by night, Craft that never shows a light;Nor ever, to prevent worse knell,Tolls in fog the warning bell. From collision never shrinking,Drive what may through darksome smother; Saturate, but never sinking,Fatal only to the other! Deadlier than the sunken reefSince still the snare it shifteth, Torpid in dumb ambuscadeWaylayingly it drifteth. O, the sailors–O, the sails!O, the lost crews never heard of!Well the harp of Ariel wailsThought that tongue can tell no word of! TO THE MASTER OF THE METEOR Lonesome on earth’s loneliest deep,Sailor! who dost thy vigil keep–Off the Cape of Storms dost musing sweep Over monstrous waves that curl and comb; Of thee we think when here from brinkWe blow the mead in bubbling foam. Of thee we think, in a ring we link;To the shearer of ocean’s fleece we drink, And the Meteor rolling home. FAR OFF-SHORE Look, the raft, a signal flying, Thin–a shred;None upon the lashed spars lying, Quick or dead. Cries the sea-fowl, hovering over, “Crew, the crew?”And the billow, reckless, rover, Sweeps anew! THE MAN-OF-WAR HAWK Yon black man-of-war-hawk that wheels in the lightO’er the black ship’s white sky-s’l, sunned cloud to the sight,Have we low-flyers wings to ascend to his height?No arrow can reach him; nor thought can attainTo the placid supreme in the sweep of his reign. THE FIGURE-HEAD The Charles-and-Emma seaward sped,(Named from the carven pair at prow,) He so smart, and a curly head,She tricked forth as a bride knows how: Pretty stem for the port, I trow! But iron-rust and alum-sprayAnd chafing gear, and sun and dewVexed this lad and lassie gay,Tears in their eyes, salt tears nor few; And the hug relaxed with the failing glue. But came in end a dismal night,With creaking beams and ribs that groan, A black lee-shore and waters white:Dropped on the reef, the pair lie prone: O, the breakers dance, but the winds they moan! THE GOOD CRAFT SNOW BIRD Strenuous need that head-wind be From purposed voyage that drives at last The ship, sharp-braced and dogged still, Beating up against the blast. Brigs that figs for market gather, Homeward-bound upon the stretch,Encounter oft this uglier weather Yet in end their port they fetch. Mark yon craft from sunny Smyrna Glazed with ice in Boston Bay;Out they toss the fig-drums cheerly, Livelier for the frosty ray. What if sleet off-shore assailed her, What though ice yet plate her yards;In wintry port not less she renders Summer’s gift with warm regards! And, look, the underwriters’ man, Timely, when the stevedore’s done, Puts on his specs to pry and scan,And sets her down–A, No. 1. Bravo, master! Bravo, brig! For slanting snows out of the West Never the Snow-Bird cares one fig; And foul winds steady her, though a pest. OLD COUNSEL_Of The Young Master of a Wrecked California Clipper Come out of the Golden Gate, Go round the Horn with streamers,Carry royals early and late;But, brother, be not over-elate–All hands save ship! has startled dreamers. THE TUFT OF KELP All dripping in tangles green, Cast up by a lonely seaIf purer for that, O Weed, Bitterer, too, are ye? THE MALDIVE SHARK About the Shark, phlegmatical one,Pale sot of the Maldive sea,The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim, How alert in attendance be.From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of mawThey have nothing of harm to dread, But liquidly glide on his ghastly flankOr before his Gorgonian head:Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth In white triple tiers of glittering gates, And there find a haven when peril’s abroad, An asylum in jaws of the Fates!They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey,Yet never partake of the treat–Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull,Pale ravener of horrible meat. TO NED Where is the world we roved, Ned Bunn? Hollows thereof lay rich in shadeBy voyagers old inviolate thrown Ere Paul Pry cruised with Pelf and Trade. To us old lads some thoughts come homeWho roamed a world young lads no more shall roam. Nor less the satiate year impends When, wearying of routine-resorts, The pleasure-hunter shall break loose, Ned, for our Pantheistic ports:–Marquesas and glenned isles that be Authentic Edens in a Pagan sea. The charm of scenes untried shall lure, And, Ned, a legend urge the flight–The Typee-truants under starsUnknown to Shakespere’s Midsummer- Night;And man, if lost to Saturn’s Age,Yet feeling life no Syrian pilgrimage. But, tell, shall he, the tourist, find Our isles the same in violet-glowEnamoring us what years and years– Ah, Ned, what years and years ago!Well, Adam advances, smart in pace, But scarce by violets that advance you trace. But we, in anchor-watches calm, The Indian Psyche’s languor won,And, musing, breathed primeval balm From Edens ere yet overrun;Marvelling mild if mortal twice,Here and hereafter, touch a Paradise. CROSSING THE TROPICS_From “The Saya-y-Manto.” While now the Pole Star sinks from sight The Southern Cross it climbs the sky;But losing thee, my love, my light, O bride but for one bridal night, The loss no rising joys supply. Love, love, the Trade Winds urge abaft, And thee, from thee, they steadfast waft. By day the blue and silver sea And chime of waters blandly fanned– Nor these, nor Gama’s stars to meMay yield delight since still for thee I long as Gama longed for land. I yearn, I yearn, reverting turn,My heart it streams in wake asternWhen, cut by slanting sleet, we swoop Where raves the world’s inverted year,If roses all your porch shall loop, Not less your heart for me will droop Doubling the world’s last outpost drear. O love, O love, these oceans vast:Love, love, it is as death were past! THE BERG_A Dream I SAW a ship of martial build(Her standards set, her brave apparel on) Directed as by madness mereAgainst a stolid iceberg steer,Nor budge it, though the infatuate ship went down.The impact made huge ice-cubes fall Sullen, in tons that crashed the deck;But that one avalanche was allNo other movement save the foundering wreck. Along the spurs of ridges pale,Not any slenderest shaft and frail, A prism over glass–green gorges lone,Toppled; nor lace of traceries fine, Nor pendant drops in grot or mineWere jarred, when the stunned ship went down.Nor sole the gulls in cloud that wheeled Circling one snow-flanked peak afar,But nearer fowl the floes that skimmed And crystal beaches, felt no jar.No thrill transmitted stirred the lock Of jack-straw needle-ice at base;Towers undermined by waves–the block Atilt impending–kept their place.Seals, dozing sleek on sliddery ledges Slipt never, when by loftier edgesThrough very inertia overthrown,The impetuous ship in bafflement went down. Hard Berg (methought), so cold, so vast, With mortal damps self-overcast;Exhaling still thy dankish breath– Adrift dissolving, bound for death;Though lumpish thou, a lumbering one– A lumbering lubbard loitering slow,Impingers rue thee and go down,Sounding thy precipice below,Nor stir the slimy slug that sprawls Along thy dense stolidity of walls. THE ENVIABLE ISLES_From “Rammon.” Through storms you reach them and from storms are free. Afar descried, the foremost drear in hue, But, nearer, green; and, on the marge, the sea Makes thunder low and mist of rainbowed dew. But, inland, where the sleep that folds the hills A dreamier sleep, the trance of God, instills– On uplands hazed, in wandering airs aswoon,Slow-swaying palms salute love’s cypress tree Adown in vale where pebbly runlets croon A song to lull all sorrow and all glee. Sweet-fern and moss in many a glade are here. Where, strewn in flocks, what cheek-flushed myriads lieDimpling in dream–unconscious slumberers mere, While billows endless round the beaches die. PEBBLES IThough the Clerk of the Weather insist, And lay down the weather-law,Pintado and gannet they wistThat the winds blow whither they list In tempest or flaw. IIOld are the creeds, but stale the schools, Revamped as the mode may veer,But Orm from the schools to the beaches straysAnd, finding a Conch hoar with time, he delays And reverent lifts it to ear.That Voice, pitched in far monotone, Shall it swerve? shall it deviate ever? The Seas have inspired it, and Truth– Truth, varying from sameness never. IIIIn hollows of the liquid hills Where the long Blue Ridges run,The flattery of no echo thrills, For echo the seas have none;Nor aught that gives man back man’s strain– The hope of his heart, the dream in his brain. IVOn ocean where the embattled fleets repair, Man, suffering inflictor, sails on sufferance there. VImplacable I, the old Implacable Sea: Implacable most when most I smile serene– Pleased, not appeased, by myriad wrecks in me. VICurled in the comb of yon billow Andean, Is it the Dragon’s heaven-challenging crest? Elemental mad ramping of ravening waters– Yet Christ on the Mount, and the dove in her nest! VIIHealed of my hurt, I laud the inhuman Sea– Yea, bless the Angels Four that there convene; For healed I am ever by their pitiless breath Distilled in wholesome dew named rosmarine. Poems From Timoleon LINES TRACED UNDER AN IMAGE OF AMOR THREATENING Fear me, virgin whosoeverTaking pride from love exempt, Fear me, slighted. Never, neverBrave me, nor my fury tempt:Downy wings, but wroth they beatTempest even in reason’s seat. THE NIGHT MARCH With banners furled and clarions mute, An army passes in the night;And beaming spears and helms salute The dark with bright. In silence deep the legions stream, With open ranks, in order true;Over boundless plains they stream and gleam– No chief in view! Afar, in twinkling distance lost, (So legends tell) he lonely wendsAnd back through all that shining host His mandate sends. THE RAVAGED VILLA In shards the sylvan vases lie, Their links of dance undone,And brambles wither by thy brim, Choked fountain of the sun!The spider in the laurel spins, The weed exiles the flower:And, flung to kiln, Apollo’s bust Makes lime for Mammon’s tower. THE NEW ZEALOT TO THE SUN Persian, you riseAflame from climes of sacrifice Where adulators sue,And prostrate man, with brow abased, Adheres to rites whose tenor traced All worship hitherto. Arch type of sway,Meetly your over-ruling ray You fling from Asia’s plain,Whence flashed the javelins abroadOf many a wild incursive horde Led by some shepherd Cain. Mid terrors dinnedGods too came conquerors from your Ind, The book of Brahma throve;They came like to the scythed car,Westward they rolled their empire far, Of night their purple wove. Chemist, you breedIn orient climes each sorcerous weed That energizes dream–Transmitted, spread in myths and creeds, Houris and hells, delirious screeds And Calvin’s last extreme. What though your lightIn time’s first dawn compelled the flight Of Chaos’ startled clan,Shall never all your darted spearsDisperse worse Anarchs, frauds and fears, Sprung from these weeds to man? But Science yetAn effluence ampler shall beget, And power beyond your play–Shall quell the shades you fail to rout, Yea, searching every secret out Elucidate your ray. MONODY To have known him, to have loved him After loneness long;And then to be estranged in life, And neither in the wrong;And now for death to set his seal– Ease me, a little ease, my song! By wintry hills his hermit-mound The sheeted snow-drifts drape,And houseless there the snow-bird flits Beneath the fir-trees’ crape:Glazed now with ice the cloistral vine That hid the shyest grape. LONE FOUNTS Though fast youth’s glorious fable flies, View not the world with worldling’s eyes; Nor turn with weather of the time.Foreclose the coming of surprise:Stand where Posterity shall stand;Stand where the Ancients stood before, And, dipping in lone founts thy hand,Drink of the never-varying lore:Wise once, and wise thence evermore. THE BENCH OF BOORS In bed I muse on Tenier’s boors,Embrowned and beery losels all; A wakeful brain Elaborates pain:Within low doors the slugs of boors Laze and yawn and doze again. In dreams they doze, the drowsy boors, Their hazy hovel warm and small: Thought’s ampler bound But chill is found:Within low doors the basking boorsSnugly hug the ember-mound. Sleepless, I see the slumberous boors Their blurred eyes blink, their eyelids fall: Thought’s eager sight Aches–overbright!Within low doors the boozy boorsCat-naps take in pipe-bowl light. ART In placid hours well-pleased we dream Of many a brave unbodied scheme.But form to lend, pulsed life create, What unlike things must meet and mate:A flame to melt–a wind to freeze;Sad patience–joyous energies;Humility–yet pride and scorn;Instinct and study; love and hate;Audacity–reverence. These must mate, And fuse with Jacob’s mystic heart,To wrestle with the angel–Art. THE ENTHUSIAST”Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.” Shall hearts that beat no base retreat In youth’s magnanimous years–Ignoble hold it, if discreet When interest tames to fears;Shall spirits that worship light Perfidious deem its sacred glow, Recant, and trudge where worldlings go, Conform and own them right? Shall Time with creeping influence cold Unnerve and cow? the heartPine for the heartless ones enrolled With palterers of the mart?Shall faith abjure her skies, Or pale probation blench her down To shrink from Truth so still, so lone Mid loud gregarious lies? Each burning boat in Caesar’s rear, Flames–No return through me!So put the torch to ties though dear, If ties but tempters be.Nor cringe if come the night: Walk through the cloud to meet the pall, Though light forsake thee, never fallFrom fealty to light. SHELLEY’S VISION Wandering late by morning seas When my heart with pain was low–Hate the censor pelted me– Deject I saw my shadow go. In elf-caprice of bitter toneI too would pelt the pelted one:At my shadow I cast a stone. When lo, upon that sun-lit ground I saw the quivering phantom takeThe likeness of St. Stephen crowned: Then did self-reverence awake. THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS He toned the sprightly beam of morning With twilight meek of tender eve,Brightness interfused with softness, Light and shade did weave:And gave to candor equal placeWith mystery starred in open skies; And, floating all in sweetness, made Her fathomless mild eyes. THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES While faith forecasts millennial years Spite Europe’s embattled lines,Back to the Past one glance be cast– The Age of the Antonines!O summit of fate, O zenith of timeWhen a pagan gentleman reigned,And the olive was nailed to the inn of the worldNor the peace of the just was feigned. A halcyon Age, afar it shines, Solstice of Man and the Antonines. Hymns to the nations’ friendly godsWent up from the fellowly shrines,No demagogue beat the pulpit-drum In the Age of the Antonines!The sting was not dreamed to be taken from death,No Paradise pledged or sought,