xt7gb56d2m65 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7gb56d2m65/data/mets.xml Cawein, Madison Julius, 1865-1914. 1893  books b92-184-30604786 English G.P. Putnam, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Poems of nature and love  / by Madison Cawein. text Poems of nature and love  / by Madison Cawein. 1893 2002 true xt7gb56d2m65 section xt7gb56d2m65 












BOOKS BY MADISON CAWEIN



Moods and Memories    . 2 00

Red Leaves and Roses .   1 25

Days and Dreams.         I 25

Poems of Nature and Love     .I 50




    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
      NEW YORK  LONDON

 



        POEMS


            OF


NATURE AND LOVE




            BY



MADISON



CAWEIN



      G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
   NEW YORK          LONDON
27 West Twenty-third St.  24 Bedford St., Strand
       he l-ictherbothrl 9Xc
              i 893

 
























          COPYRIGHT, 1893
                BY
       MADISON    CAWEIN



















       Printed and Bound by
Zbe lftnfcherbocher press, Rew pork
        G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

 















  Under the present title are included selections
from two former volumes, Accolon of Gaul, and
Lyrics and Idyls.  Such poems only as appeared
to the author's judgment worthiest of retention
have been retained. In the selection of these he
has endeavored to exercise a critical discrimination
aced, to the best of his ability, to correct or expunge
the frequent obscurity, superfluity, and exaggerated
expression of the earlier works. Many of the poems
have been partially, several entirely, rewritten.



111

 This page in the original text is blank.

 





















TO



JOAQUIN



MILLER

 








How shall Igreet him-him who seems
   7T me the worthiest of our singers
As one who hears Sierra streams,
  A nd, gazinX under arching fingers,
Feels all the eagle feels that screams,
   The savage dreams, what time he lingers

Son of the West, out of the West
   We heard thee sing,-who still allurest,
A land where God sits manifest,
  A land where man stands freest, surest;
A land, the noblest and the best,
  The loveliest and purest.

Wild hast thou sung, as somie strangre bird
  On golden cliffs, and winds that glistened,
And seas and staws and vmen have heard-
  And one, whose soul cried out and listened,
He sends his young-, uuzworthy word
  70 e/ze the AMaster's word hath christened.


 










                 CONTENTS.




                                               P AG E
Revery                                                 I
Summer                                                 3
Gargaphie                                              5
Beneath the Beeches                                    8
The Brush-Sparrow                                10
The Old Farm                                     I3
The Bridle-path                                  17
A Gray Day                                       2 I
The Mood o' the Earth                            24
Among the Acres of the Wood                      27
Nooning                                          29
The Log-Bridge                                   3I
Anmong the Knobs                                 33
Late October                                     36
Fall                        .38
The Forest Pool                                  40
Haunted                                          42
Ghostly Weather                                  47
Apocalypse                                       48
Uncertainty                                      49
Overseas                                         5I
Act II..                                         53
Lost Love                                        55
On a Portrait                                    57
After the Tournament                             58
Oriental Romance                                 6o
Porphyrogenita                                   62
The Castle of Love                               64
                        vii

 


viii                 CoNTE1 N   S.


                                                  FAGE
Consecration                                        67
Romantic Love                                       69
Pastoral Love                                       7I
Andalia                                             72
NoUra                                               75
Phyllis                                             78
Carmen                                              80
Sefiorita                                           83
As It Is                                            85
Thoughts                                            86
Chords      .     ..
Impressions                                         92
Fragments                                           99
Ideal Divination                                   IOI
The Beautiful                                      104
Sleep                                              io6
Disenchantment of Death.                           IOS
The Three Urgandas                                 III
The Legacy of Death     .     .5
The Caverns of Kaf                                 I21
The Spirit of the Van   .27
The Spirit of the Star                              '.33
Lyanna                                             138
Masks                                              '44
The Succuba                                        147
Blodetuwedd                                        151
Accolon of Gaul                                    156
Epilogue                                           210


 









REVERY.



J F/-at oive i-, te s fro  goIt/ of Ophir wzroutaght,
  [V/mat waols of mardctwte,  than a irose,
JIV/at towvers Of clystal, fotr tie eves of thouglht,
  Hiast buildled onl fa- IsZandis of Rep:ose!

WH ERE castled peaks and templed cliffs and
         vales
  Cloud - like  convulsive  sunsets-shores  that
        dream,
MNyvrrh-fragrant, over siren seas whose sails
  Gleam white as lilies on a lilied stream,
I oiig have I dreamed ! In gardens towards the sea,
  Down arcades of some sea-sad colonnade
    Of wreathen sculpture, long have walked with
        thought,
To Tend, in shadowy attitude, the knee
  Before the shrine of lBeautv that must fade
    And leave no memory of the mind that wvrougrht.

Wilo hath beheld thy caverns where, in heaps,
  The wines of Lethe and Love's-xvitchery,
In sealed amphorx a Sibyl keeps,
\Vorld-old, forever guarded secretly !-

 

REVER F.



No wine of Xeres or of Syracuse !
  No fine Fa]ernian and no vile Sabine !-
    The stolen fire of a demigod,
Whose bubbled purple goddess feet did bruise
  From crusted vats of vintage, where the green
    Flames with wild poppies, on the Samian sod.

Oh, for the deep enchantment of one draught!
  The reckless ecstasy of classic earth
With godlike eyes to laugh as gods have laughed
  In eyes of mortal brown, a breezy mirth
Of deity delirious with desire I
  To breathe the dropping roses of the shrines,
    The splashing wine-libation and the blood,
And all the young priest's dreaming ! To inspire
  My eager soul with beauty, till it shines
    An utterance of life's loftier brotherhood

So would I slumber in the old-world shades,
  And Poesy should touch me, as the bold
Wild-bees the virgin lilies of the glades,
  Barbaric with the pulpy-kerneled gold:
And feel the glory of the golden-age
  Less godly than my purpose, strong to( dare
    Death with the pure, immortal lips of love
Less lovely than my soul's ideal rage
  To mate itself with Music, and declare
    Itself part-meaning of the stars above.



2


 



POEMS OF iVA T7 URE A ND L 0 VE.



                  SU AII ER.

                        I.
THOU sit'st among the sunny silences
    Of passive hills and woodland majesties,
Thou utterance of all calin melodies,
Thou lutanist of Earth's most fecund lute,-
          Where no false note intrudes
To mar the silent music,-foot by foot
Playing broad fields ripe, orchards and deep Woods,
          In sonig similitudes
          Of flower and seed and fruit.

                       IIL
So have I heard thee in some sensuous air
Bewvitch the wide wheat-acres everywhere
To imitated gold of thy rich hair:
The peach, by thy red lips' delicious trouble,
          Blown into gradual dyes
Of crimson; with glad interludes to double-
Dark-blue with fervid influence of thine eyes-
          The grapes' rotundities
          Bubble by purple bubble.

                      TII .
TDelilberate uttered into life intense,
Out of thy mouth's melodious eloquence

 


SSMEMER.



Beauty evolves its just pre-eminence:
The lily, from some pensive-smitten chord
           Drawing significance
Of purity, a visible hush stands ; starred
With splendor, from thy passionate utterance,
           The rose writes its romance
           In blushing word on word.

                        I V.
As star by star day harps in evening,
The inspiration of all things that sing
Is in thy hands and from their touch taKes wring
All brooks, all birds,-no similar songs can sate,-
           All wings, the wvind and rain,
Hoarse frogs and insects, singing rathe and late,
Thy sympathies inspire, and vet remain
           Patient to invigorate
           With rest life's toiling brain.

                        V.

And as the night, like some mysterious rune,
Its beauty makes emphatic with the moon,
Thou lutest us no immaterial tune
But where hushed music haunts the cane and corn,
          And where the thick leaves throng,
Earth's awful avatar,-in whom is born
Thy ow-n vast spirit,-labors all niglht long
          WVith growth, assuring morn
          Assumes like onward song.



4


 

  POEM11S OF NAA TUR E ANED LOVE.     5





          GARGAPHIE.


   "SutcCinze Sac;-a .Diand  . "-OVID.


                I.

THERE the ragged sunlight lay
    Tawny on thick ferns and gray
      On dark waters: dimmer,
Lone and deep, the cypress grove
Shadowed whisperings and wove
Braided lights, like those that love
On the pearl plumes of a dove
      Pale to gleam and glimmer.


                II.

There centennial pine and oak
Into stormy utterance broke:
    Hollow rocks gloomed, slanting,
Echoing in dim arcade,
Looming with loose moss, that made
Sunshine streaks in tatters laid
Oft a wild hart, hunt-afrayed,
     Plunged the water, panting.

 

GA RGA PLIE.



                III.

Poppies of a sleepy gold
Mooned the gold-green twilights rolled
      Down its vistas, making
Fuzzy puffs of flame. And pale
Stole the dim deer dow.vn the vale.
And the haunting nightingale
Throbbed not near-the olden tale
      All its hurt heart breaking.

                IV.

There the hazy serpolet,
Dewy cistus, blooming wet,
      Blushed on bank and boulder
There the cyclamen, as wan
As faint footprints of the Dawn,
Carpeted the spotted lawn :
There the nude nymn)h, diripping drawn,
      Basked a peachy shoulder.

                V.

In the citrine shadows there
XWhat tall presences and fair,
      White and godly gracious,-
Hidden where the rock-rose grew,-
Watched through eyeballs of the dew,
Or from sounding oaks I and knew
All the mystery of blue
      Heaven, vaulted spacious



6

 

GA R GA PHIE.



                V 1.

Guarded that Bceotian
Valley so no foot of man
      Soiled its silence holy
Wdith profaning tread-save one,
The Hyantian   Actmon,
He beheld  . . . What god might shun
Fate, Diana's wrath called down,
      With what magic moly !-

               N'II.

Lost it lies ; like one who sleeps
In serene enchantment ; keeps
    Beautiful in beamv
Beauty of the flowers that be
Wisdoi's ; hope, its high stars see,
Near in fountains ; deity,
In wise wind-words of each tree-
      Gargaphie the dreamy.



7


 
POEMS OF WA TURE A ND LO VE.



  BENEATH THE BEECHES.


                I.

I LONG, oh long to lie
   'Neath beechen branches, twisted
Green 'twixt the summer sky;
The woodland shadows nigh-
Brown dryads sunbeam-wristed
The live-long day to dream
Beside a wildwood stream.


               II.



I long, oh long to hear
The claustral forest's breathings,
Sounds soothing to the ear;
The yellow-hammer near,
Beam-bright, thrid wild-vine wreathings:
The live-long day to cross
Slow o'er the nut-strewn moss.



               III.

I long, oh long to see
The nesting red-bird singing



8

 

BENEA TH THE BEECHES.



Glad on the wood-rose tree;
To watch the breezy bee,
Half in the wildflower, swinging
God's live-long day to pass
Deep in cool forest grass.

             IV.

Oh you, so builded in
With mart and booth and steeple,
Brick alley-ways of Sin,
What hope for you to win
Ways free of pelf and people
Ways of the leaf and root
And soft Mygdonian flute!



9


 
I o   POEMS OF NA TURE A AND LO E.



     THE BRUSH-SPARROW.


                  I.

E RE wild-haws, looming in the glooms,
    Build bolted drifts of breezy blooms;
And in the whistling hollow there
The red-bud bends as brown and bare
As buxom Roxy's up-stripped arm
From some gray hickory or larch,
Sighed o'er the sodden meads of March,
The sad heart thrills and reddens warm
To hear you braving the rough storm,
Frail courier of green-gathering powers
Rebelling sap in trees and flowers
Love's minister come heralding-
O sweet saint-voice among bleak bowers
O brown-red pursuivant of Spring!


                  II.

' Mloan" sob the woodland cascades still
Down bloomless ledges of the hill
And gray, gaunt clouds like harpies hang
In harpy heavens, and swooo) and clang

 

THE BR USH-SPA RRW. W.



Sharp beaks and talons of the wind
Black scowl the forests, and unkind
The far fields as the near: while song
Seems murdered and all beauty, wrong.
One weak frog only in the thaw
Of spawny pools wakes cold and raw,
Expires a melancholy bass
And stops as if bewildered: then
Along the frowning wood again,
Flung in the thin wind's vulture face,
From woolly tassels of the proud
Red-bannered maples, long and loud,
  H' t' Gr-ace ! hero Grace! h /er Grace !

                IIH.

Her Grace ! her Grace ! her Grace !-
Climbs beautiful and sunny-browved
Up, up the kindling hills and wakes
Blue berries in the berry brakes:
With fragrant flakes, that blow and bleach,
Deep-powders smothered quince and peach
Eyes dogwoods with a thousand eyes:
Teaches each sod how to be wxise
With twenty wvildflowers to one weed
And kisses germs that they may seed.
In purest purple and sweet white
Treads up the happier hills of light,
Bloom, cloudy-borne, song in her hair
And balm and beam of odorous air



I I

 
12          THE BRUSH-SPARROTT.

    Winds, her retainers ; and the rains
    Her yeomen strong that sweep the plains:
    Her scarlet knights of dawn, and'gold
    Of eve, her panoply unfold:
    Her herald tabarded behold !
    Awake to greet ! prepare to sing '
    She comes, the darling Duchess, Spring !


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LOVE.



         THE OLD FARM.


D OR'MERED and verandahed, cool,
      Locust-girdled on the hill,
Stained with w eather-wear and full
  Of weird whispers, at the will
Of the sad wind's rise or lull


I remember, it stood there
  Brown above the woodland; deep
In a scent of lavender,
  \Vith slow shadows locked in sleep
And the wfarm light everywhere.


I remember how the spring,
  Liberal-lapped, bewildered its
Squares of orchard, murmuring
  Kissed with budded puffs and bits,
Where the wood-thrush came to sing.


Barefoot so at first she trodl,
  A pale beggar-maid, adown
The quaint quiet, till the god
  A'With the seen sun for a crown
And the firmament for rod,



13

 

THE OLD FARM.



Graced her nobly, wedding her-
  Her Cophetua. And so
All the hill, one breathing blur,
  Burst in blossom, where the glow
And the peach-sweet fragrance were.


Seckel, blackheart palpitant
  Rained their bleaching strays; and white
Bulged the damson bent a-slant
  Russet-tree and romanite
Seemed beneath deep drifts to pant.


And it stood there, brown and gray,
  In the bee-boom and the bloom,
In the murmur and the day,
  In the passion and perfume,
Grave as age among the gay.


Good as laughter romped the clear,
  Boyish voices round its walls
Rare wild-roses were the dear
  Girlish faces in its halls,
Music-haunted all the year.


Far before it meadows full
  Of green pennyroyal sank
Clover dots, like bits of wool
  Pinched from lambs; and now a bank
Of wild color ; and the cool



14

 

THE OLD FARM. '.



Brown-blue shadows undefined
  Of the clouds rolled overhead-
Curdled mists that kept the wind
  Fresh with rain and comforted
With soft songs forever kind.

Where in mint and gypsy-lily
  Ran the rocky brook away,
Musical among the hilly
  Solitudes,-its flashing spray
Sunlight-soft or forest-stilly;-

Buried in thick sassafras,
  Half-way up the wooded hill,
Moved some cowbell's muffled brass;
  And the ruined water-mill
Loomed half-hid in cane and grass.

I remember-stands it yet
  On the hilltop, in the musk
Of damp meads, while violet
  Deepens all the dreaming dusk,
And the locust-trees hang wet


With the dew  while, far and low,
  One long tear of scarlet gashes,
Tattered, the broad primrose glow
Westward, and in weakest splashes
Lilac stars the heavens sow 



1 5

 

ii6            THE OLD FA RM.

   Sleeps it still among its roses,
     Red and yellow, while the choir
   Of the lonesome insects dozes 
     And the white moon, drifting higher,
   Brightens and the darkness closes-
   Sleeps it still among its roses 


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LOVE.



        THE BRIDLE-PATH.


                   I.

THROUGH meadows of the iron-weeds,
     Whose purple blooms flash, slipping
Twice-twinkling drops of dewy beads,
The thin path twists and winding leads
  Through woodland hollows dripping;
Down to a creek with bedded reeds;
On to the lilied dam that feeds
The mill, whose wheel through willow-bredes
  Winks, the white water whipping.



                  II.

It wends through meads of mint and brush
  Where silvery seeds sink drowsy,
Or sail along the heatful hush;
Past where the bobwhite in the bush
  Has built a nest, and frowsy
Hides calling clear. A split through crush
Of crowded saplings, low and lush
A seam by pools of flag and rush
  Where blows the brier-rose blowsy.
  2



17

 

THE BRIDLE-PA TE.



                  III.

Across the ragweed fallow-lot,
  Whose low-rail fence encumbers
The dense-packed berries ripening hot;
Where on the summer, one far spot
  Of gray, the gray hawk slumbers.
Then in the greenwood where the rot
Of leaves and loam smells cool ; and shot
With dotting dark the touch-me-not
  Swings curling horns in numbers.


                  IV.

Around brown rocks that bulge and lie
  Deep in damp ferns and mosses,-
Like giants, each lounged on his thigh
To watch some forest quarry die,-
  The path toils steep ; then crosses
A bramble-bridge; up-whirring nigh
A wood-dove startles, 'thwart the sky
A jarring light: and babbling by
  The brook its diamonds tosses.




Ho! through the wildwood then we go
  In pulse of shade and singing;
Where pale-pink sorrel-grasses grow
The vari-colored toadstools sow



x8

 

THE BRIDLE-PA TH.



  And swell the soil, bestringing
The red-oak's roots. Where, swinging low
Their green burs, limbs rub when each slow,
Faint forest wind sounds. Fresh the flow
  Of hidden waters ringing.


                  VI.

While far away among the cane,
  Or spice-bush belts, the tinkle
Of one stray bell drifts yet again,
Lost near some lone and leafy lane
  Where smooth the red ruts wrinkle .
Now up the sky a grayish stain
Spreads smoky blue. A hint of rain.
The sun is hid. Hard down the grain
  A gust dents; and a sprinkle


                 VII.



Has drilled the dimpled dust. Hark !-one
  Big mouthful of the thunder-
And, scurrying with the dust, we run
Into a whiff of hay and sun,
Of cribs and barns ; and under
The martin-builded eaves, -where dun
The sparrows house with fuss and fun,-
" W"ill it be done soon as begun"
We wonder and we wonder.



9g

 

THE BRIDLE-PA TH.



                  VIII.
A crashing wedge of stormy light
  Vibrating blinds, and dashes
A monster elm to splinters quite
A hush, then rushing rain that white
  The tumbled straw-stack lashes. .
The rain is over. Left and right
Foregathering gales of green delight,
Fresh rain scents of each wood and height
  Where each blade drips and flashes.


                  IX.
A ghostly gold burns slowly through
  The crumbled clouds; and woven
From rainy rose to rainy blue
A dim pearl-dotting as of dew
  Dies into trembling doven.
High-buoyed in rack now one or two
Slight stars shine white-the pirate clew
To night's rich hoard.-The west 's a hue
  Of bruised pomegranate cloven.



20


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LOVE.



           A GRAY DAY.

                   I.

LONG volleys of wind and of rain,
    And the rain on the drizzled pane,
  And the dusk comes chill and murk;
But on yesterday's eve I know
How a new moon's thorn-like bow
Stabbed rosy through gold and through glow,
  Like a rich, barbaric dirk.

                  II.

The throats of the snapdragons,
Cool-colored like dewiest dawns
  That a healthy yellow paints,
Are filled with a sweet rain fine
Of a jaunty, jubilant shine,
A faery vat of rare wine,
  That the honey thinly taints.


                  III.

Dabbled the poppies shrink,
And the coxcomb and the pink;
And the candytuft's damp crown
Droops dribbled, low bowed i' the wet;



21

 

A GRAY DAY.



Long counters of mignonette
Little musk-sacks open let,
  From the shelves o' the dew dragged down.

                  IV.
Stretched taunt on the blades of grass,
A gossamer-fibered glass,
  That the garden-spider spun,
The web, where the round rain clings
In its middle sagging, swings-
A hammock for elfin things
  When the stars succeed the sun.

                  V.
And, mark, where the pale gourd grows
As high as the climbing rose,
  How the tiger-moth is pressed
To the wide leaf's under side.-
And I know where the red wasps hide,
And the brown bees,-that defied
  The first strong gusts,-distressed.

                  VI.
Yet I feel that the gray will blow
Aside for an afterglow;
  And the wind, on a sudden, toss
Drenched boughs to a pattering show'r
Athwart the red dusk in a glow'r,
Big drops heard hard on each flow'r,
  On the grass and the flowering moss.



22

 
          A GRA Y DA Y.                23

                VII.

And then for a minute, may be,-
A pearl-hollow-worn-of the sea,-
  A glimmer of moon will smile;
Cool stars rinsed clean o' the dusk
A freshness of gathering musk
O'er the showery lawns, as brusque
  As spice from an Indian Isle.


 

24    POEMS OF NA TURE A AND L OV E.



   THE MOOD O' THE EARTH.


M Y heart is high, is high, my dear,
     As the wind in the wood that blows
My heart is high with a mood that 's cheer,
  And burns like a sun-blown rose.

My heart is high, my dear, my dear,
  And the heaven's deep skies are blue
My heart goes out to the passionate year,
  As glad as a cloud with dew.

My heart, my heart is high, my sweet,
  And wild as the smell o' the wood,
That gusts -' the breeze with a pulse of heat,
  Mad heat that beats like a blood.

My heart is high; and it guides my feet
  'Where the sense of summer is full;
A sense of summer-full fields of wheat,
  Full forests the swift creeks cool.

My heart is one, is one, my heart,
  With the brown bee's heart that sinks
And sounds i' the flowers that dip and part
  To his dusty body that drinks.

 

THE MOOD O' THE EARTH.



My heart is high, my heart, my heart!
  Sing! sing again, 0 good, gray bird
That I may get that lilt by heart,
  And fit each note with a word.

God's saints ! I tread the air, my dear
  Am one with the hoiden wind;
And the stars that stare I swear, my dear,
  Right soon in my hair I '11 find.-

To live high up a life of mist,
  With the white things in white skies,-
With their limbs of pearl and of amethyst,-
  Who laugh blue, humorous eyes !

To creep and to suck, like an elfin thing,
  In the aching heart of a rose;
In the bluebell's ear to cling and swing
  And whisper what no one knows !

To live on wild honey as fresh as thin
  As the rain that 's left in a flower !
And roll out golden from toe to chin
  In the god-flower's Danae shower!

Or free, full-throated, bend back the throat,
  With a vigorous look at the blue,
And sing, and sing with a staunch wild note,
  Like the thrush there ere it flew.



25

 

26       THE MOOD O' THE EARTH1.

    God's life ! the blood o' the Earth is mine !
    And the mood o' the Earth I 'l take,
    And brim my soul with her wonderful wine
    And sing till my heart doth break !


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LO VE.



AMONG THE ACRES OF THE WOOD.


                   I.
           I KNOW, I know,
               The way doth go
   Athwart a greenwood glade, oh!
 White bloom the wild-plums in that glade,
 White as the bosom of the maid,
 Who, stooping, sits, and milks and sings
 Among the dew-dashed clover-rings,
 When fades the flush, the henna blush,
   Of evening's glow, an orange low,
   And all the winds are laid, oh

                   II.

           I wot, I wot:
           And is it not
   Right o'er the viney hill 
 Say ! where the wild-grapes mat and make
 Penthouses to each bramble-brake,
 And dangle plumes of fragrant blooms 
 Wphere leaking sunbeams string the glooms
 With beryl beads where sprinkled weeds
   Blue blossoms fill  and shrill, oh, shrill,
   Sings all night long one whippoorwill



27

 

28    AMONG THE ACRES OF THE WOOD.

                     Ill.
              I ween, I ween
              The path is green
      'Neath beechen boughs that let
    Sly glances of the bashful sky
    Gleam usward like a girlish eye
    At night one far and lambent star
    Shines limpid, like a watching Lar,
    'Mlid branching buds a tangled bud
    Where in the acres of the wood
      Blow strips of wet, wild violet,
      And only we have trysting met.


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LOVE.



                 NOONING.


                      I.

W   EAK winds that make the water wink;
       White clouds that sail from lands of Fable,
To white Utopias of vague brink,
Down gulfs of blue unfathomable:
      Their rolling shadows drifting
      O'er fields of forest, lifting
Wild peaks of purple range that loom and sink.


                      II.
Warm knolls whereon the Nooning dreams;
In droning dells that bask in brightness,
Low-lulled with hymns of mountain-streams,
Far-foaming falls of windy whiteness;
      Where, from the glooming hollow
      With cawing crows that follow,
The hunted hawk wings wearily and screams.



                     III.
Dry-buzzing heat and drought that thrills
With one harsh locust's lonesome whirring;



29

 

N OONING.



No answering voice shouts on the hills,
Receding echoes far-recurring-
      As when the Dawning dimpled,
      With hazel twilight wimpled,
From dewy tops called o'er responding rills.

                     IV.
Wan with sweet summer hangs the deep,
Hot heaven with the high sun hearted-
A wide May-apple bloom asleep
With golden-pistled petals parted.-
      Now-could befall,-her pouting
      Cheeks anger-red,-from sprouting
Rock-mosses some white wildwood Dream might
   leap.



30


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LO VE.



            THE LOG-BRIDGE.

                       I.
LAST month, where the old log-bridge is laid
     O'er the woodland brook, in the belts o' the
        shade,
To the right, to the left, pink-packed was made
    A gloaming glory of scented tangle
By the bramble roses there-that wade
High-heaped on the sides-when they bloomed to
        fade,
And, wilting, powdered the ruts, and swayed
    To the waters beneath loose loops of spangle
Ihen the breeze that blew and the beam that rayed
    Were murmurous-soft with the bees a--wrangle.

                      II.
This month-'t is August-the lane that leads
To the bramble-bridge runs waste with weeds,
That bloom bright saffron, or satin seeds
    Of thistle-fleece blow at you. Hazy
And starry the lane with the thousand bredes
Of the yellow daisy-like sweet-eyed creeds
Peacefully praying.-Now by you speeds
    A butterfly sumptuous with mottle and lazy.
A yellowish-red, where the blue-bird pleads,
    The sumach's tassel dips down to the daisy.



31

 

THE L OG-BRIDGE.



                       III.
All golden the spot in the noon's gold shine,
Where the yellow-bird sits with eyes of wine
And swings and whistles; where, line on line,
    In coils of warmth the sunbeams nestle;
Where cool by the pool (where the crawfish, fine
As a shadow's shadow, darts dim) to mine
The wet creek-clay with their peevish whine,
    Come mason-hornets ; and roll and wrestle
With balls of clay they carry and twine
    In hollow nests on the joists o' the trestle.

                       IV.
Where the horsemint shoots through the grasses,-
        high
On the root-thick rivage that roofs,-a dry,
Gray knob that bristles with pink, the sigh
    Of crickets is sharp 'neath the dead leaves'
        bosoms:
When the woods grow dusk you will hear the cry
Of a passing bird flit twittering by;
And the frogs' grave antiphons rise and die:
    And here to drink steal the wild opossums,
While lithe on those roots two lizards lie,
    Brown-backed like the bark, or stir the
        blossoms,



32


 

POEMS OF NA TURE AND LO VE.



       AMONG THE KNOBS.

T HERE is a place embanked with brush
    Three wooded knobs beyond,
Lost in a valley where the lush
  Wild eglantine blows blonde.

Where light the dogwoods earliest
  Their torches of white fires,
And, bee-bewildered, east and west
  The red haws build white spires.

The wan wild apples' flowery sprays
  Blur through the misty gloom
A pensive pink; and by lone ways
  The close blackberries bloom.

I love the spot: a shallow brook
  Slips from the forest, near
The cane-brake and the violet nook,
  Its rustling depths so clear.

The minnows glimmer where they glide
  Above its rocky bed-
A long, dear, boyhood's brook, not wide,
  Which has its sparkling head
     3



33

 

A4IAONG THE KNOBS.



Among the rainy hills ; and drops
  By four low waterfalls-
Wild music of an hundred stops-
  Between the leafy walls,


Against the water-gate, that hangs
  A rude portcullis,-dull
With lichened moss,-whose clumsy fangs
  The cress makes beautiful.


The glass-green dragon-flies about
  The seeding grasses swim;
The streaked wasps, worrying in and out,
  Dart fretfully and slim.

Here in the moon-gold moss, that glows
  Like jets of moonlight, dies
The weak anemone; and blows
  A flower less blue than skies.

And, where in April tenderly
  The dewy primrose made
A thin, peculiar fragrance, we,
  In the pellucid shade,

Found wild-strawberries half-abud,
  In May long berries,-fresh,
And pallid pink as wood-bird blood,-
  Stained many a trailing mesh.



34

 

A MONG THE KNOBS.



Once from that hill a farmhouse 'mid
  Deep orchards-cozy brown
In lilacs and old roses hid-
  With picket-fence looked down.


O'er ruins now the roses guard;
  The plum and seckel-pear
And the apricot rot on the sward
  Their wasted ripeness there.


But when the huckleberries blow
  Their waxen bells I '11 tread
Those dear accustomed ways, that go
  Adown the orchard, led

To that avoided spot, which seems
  The haunt of vanished springs;
Lost as the hills in drowsy dreams
  Of visionary things.



35


 

36    POEMS OF NA TURE AND LOVE.



              LATE OCTOBER.

B ULGED from its cup the dark brown acorn falls,
     And by its gnarly saucer, in the stream's
Clear puddles, swells; the spiky spruce-gum balls
  Rust maces of an ouphen host that dreams;
Beneath the chestnut-tree the burry hulls
  Split, and pour purses from their pockets' seams.

Burst silver white, nods,-an exploded husk
  Of snowy, woolly smoke,-the milk-weed's puff
Along the orchard's fence; where in the dusk
  And ashen weeds,-as some grim Satyr's rough
Red, breezy cheeks burn through his beard,-the
      brusque
  Crab-apples laugh, wind-tumbled from above.

And through the wasted leaves the crickets' clicks
  Run feeble as a sound of fairy cheers.
One bird sits in the sumach, flits and picks
  Its sour seeds. Far in the woods one hears
The drop of walnuts. Round the straw's tall ricks,
  With lifted horns, one sees the lowing steers.

Some slim, bud-bound Leimoniad hath flocked
  The birds, to lead them where the Southern
      foams

 

               LA TE OCTOBER.               37

Sing of forgetfulness. Where once were rocked
  Unnumbered bees within unnumbered blooms,
One languid bee crawls in one bloom and, locked
  Therein, dreams of the summer's oozing combs.

Winds shake the maples, and all suddenly
  A storm of leafy stars and whispers leaks
Down like a Dryad's coming. To her knee
Wading, the Naiad haun