xt7v154dp33x https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7v154dp33x/data/mets.xml Rice, Cale Young, 1872-1943. 1909  books b92-251-31802622 English Doubleday, Page, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Nirvana days  / by Cale Young Rice. text Nirvana days  / by Cale Young Rice. 1909 2002 true xt7v154dp33x section xt7v154dp33x 


NIRVANA DAYS

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NIRVANA DAYS


              BY


     CALE YOUNG RICE
           AUTHOR OF
   CHARLES Di TOCCA, A NIGHT IN AVIGNON,
     YOLANDA OF CYPRUS, DAVID, ETC.



       NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
         MCMIX

 



Cofpright, 1909, by Ca/e Young Rice

 











         TO

JAMES LANE ALLEN

  WITH FRIENDSHIP AND

  FAITHFUL ESTEEM

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        FOREWORD

  A few of the poems of this volume
are retained from two of the author's
earlier volumes which are now out of
print. The rest are new.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 










CONTENTS



NON-DRAMATIC:
   INVOCATION.   .  .   .  .   .
   THE FAIRIES OF GOD   .  .   .
   A SONG OF THE OLD VENETIANS .
   NIRVANA DAYS .   .   .  .
   TEE YOUNG TO THE OLD .
   OFF THE IRISH COAST  .  -   .
   A VISION OF VENUS AND ADONIS .
   SOMNAMBULISM  .  .   .  .   .
   SERENATA MAGICA  .   .  .   .
   O-SMCHI AND MOTO.
   AS OF OLD .   .  .   .  .   .
   A PRAYER  .   .  .   .  .   .
   THE SONG OF A NATURE WORSHIPER
   THE INFINITE'S QUEST .  .  .
   LAD AND LASS  .  .   .  .   .
   THE STRONG MAN TO His SIRES .
   AT STRATFORD  .  .   .  .   .
   THE IMAGE PAINTER.   .  .   .
   'WANDA .  .   .  .   .  .   .
   IN A STORM.   .  .   .  .  .



PAGE
    3
    4
    (f)
    8
.  21
   23
   24
   26
   23
   31
   40
   42
   43
   45
   46
   48
  53
   54
   56
 60

 



x                CONTENTS

NON-DRAMATIC-Continued:                    PAGE
   ANTAGONISTS. .   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   6I
   SEEDS.    .  .     . . . . . . 63
   WORLD-SORROWV.      .   .  .   .  .  .   64
   THE SOUL'S RETURN.  .   .  .   .  .  .   67
   BIRTHRIGHT. .  .   .  .  .   .  .    . 69
   ROMANCE   .  .   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   71
   ON THE ATLANTIC  .  .   .  .   .  .  .   73
   BY A SILENT STREAM. .   .  .   .  .  .   74
   THE GREAT BUDDHA OF KAMAKURA TO THE SPHINX  76
   NECROMANCE   .   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   73
   Loos NOT TO THE WEST.   .  .   .  .      79
   A NrKKo SHRINE   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   8I
   THE QUESTION .   - - - - - - - 83
   I'LL LOOK No MORE   .   .  .         ,   8,
   NIGHT'S OCCULTISM.  .   .  .   .  .  .   86

MORE OR LESS DRAMATIC:
   UNCROWNED .      .      .  .   .  .  .   87
   WRITTEN a HELL   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   8S
   AT THE HELM  .   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   93
   DEAD LOVE .  .   .  .   .  .   .  ..94
   MORTAL SIN.  .   .  .   .  .   .  .  .   96
   SEA-MAD .            ..97
   THE DEATH-SPRITE .  .   .  .   .  .  .   99
   WORMWOOD .   .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . 103
   QUEST AND REQUITAL (A Quakorzain Sequence)  - 105
   LOVE IN EXTREMIS .  .   .  .  .   .  . I12

 






                 CONTENTS                   xi

MORE OR LESS DRAMATIC-Continued:           PACE
   OVER THE DREGS   .  .   .  . .    .  . 114
   BEWITCHED .  .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . Ii6
   QUARREL   .  .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . ii8
   OF THE FLESH .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . I20
   A DEATH SONG .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . I23
   ON BALLYTEIGUE BAY  .   .  .   .  .  . I25
   NIGHT-RIDERS .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . 129
   HONOR .   .  .   .  .   .  .   .  .  . I32
   BRUDE, A DRAMATIC FANTASY. .  .   .  . 135

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NIRVANA DAYS

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INVOCATION



       (From a High Cliff)

Sweep unrest
Out of my blood,
Winds of the sea! Sweep the fog
Out of my brain
For I am one
Who has told Life he will be free.
Who will not doubt oi work that's done,
Who will not fear the work to do.
Who will hold peaks Promethean
Better than all Jove's honey-dew.
Who when the Vulture tears his breast
Will smile into the Terror's Eyes.
Who for the World has this Bequest-
Hope, that eternally is wise.
               3

 






THE FAIRIES OF GOD



Last night I slipt from the banks of dream
And swam in the currents of God,
On a tide where His fairies were at play,
Catchivg salt tears iti their little white hands,
For human hearts:
Aiid dan; ing Elan.ing, ir. gala bands,
On the cafrrets -of God;
And singing, singing:-
There is no wind blows here or spray-
Wind upon us!
Only the waters ripple away
Under our feet as we gather tears.
God has made mortals for the years,
Us for alway!
God has made mortals full of fears,

 

NTIRVANA DAYS



Fears for the night and fears for the day.
If they would free them from grief that sears,
If they would keep all that love endears,
If they would lay no more lilies on biers-
Let them say!
For we are swift to enchant and tire
Time's will!
Our feet are wiser than all desire,
Our song is better than faith or fame;
To whom it is given no ill e'er came,
Who has it not grows chill!
Who has it not grows laggard and lame,
Nor knows that the world is a Minstrel's lyre,
Smitten and never still! . . .
Last night on the currents of God.



5

 






A SONG OF THE OLD VENETIANS



The seven fleets of Venice
Set sail across the sea
For Cyprus and for Trebizond
Ayoub and Araby.
Their gonfalons are floating far,
St. Mark's has heard the mass,
And to the noon the salt lagoon
Lies white, like burning glass.



The seven fleets of Venice-
And each its way to go,
Led by a Falier or Tron,
Zorzi or Dandalo.
The Patriarch has blessed them all,
The Doge has waved the word,
               6

 

NIRVANA DAYS



And in their wings the murmurings
Of waiting winds are heard.



The seven fleets of Venice-
And what shall be their fate
One shall return with porphyry
And pearl and fair agate.
One shall return with spice and spoil
And silk of Samarcand.
But nevermore shall one win o'er
The sea, to any land.



  Oh, they shall bring the East back,
  And they shall bring the West,
  The seven fleets our Venice sets
  A-sail upon her quest.
  But some shall bring despair back
  And some shall leave their keels
  Deeper than wind or wave frets,
  Or sun ever steals.



7

 





NIRVANA DAYS



If I were in Japan today,
  In little Japan today,
I'd watch the sampan-rowers ride
  On Yokohama bay.
I'd watch the little flower-folk
  Pass on the Bund, where play
Of " foreign "' music fills their ears
  With wonder new alway.



Or in a kuruma I'd step
  And " Noge-yama! " cry,
And bare brown feet should wheel me fast
  Where Noge-yama, high
                8

 

NIRVANA DAYS



Above the city and sea's vast
  Uprises, with the sigh
Of pines about its festal fanes
  Built free to sun and sky.



And there till dusk I'd sit and think
  Of Shaka Muni, lord
Of Buddhas; or of Fudo's fire
  And rope and lifted sword.
And, ere I left, a surging shade
  Of clouds, a distant horde,
Should break and Fugi's cone stand clear-
  With sutras overscored.



Sutras of ice and rock and snow,
  Written by hands of heat
And thaw upon it, till 'twould seem
  Meant for the final seat
Of the lord Buddha and his bliss-
  If ever he repeat



9

 

NIRVANA DAYS



This life where millions still are bound
  Within Illusion's cheat.




             II

Or were I in Japan today-
  Perchance at Kyoto-
Down Tera-machi I would search
  For charm or curio.
Up narrow stairs in sandals pure
  Of soil or dust I'd go
Into a room of magic shapes-
  Gods. dragons, dread 'Nio.



And seated on the silent mats,
  With many a treasure near-
Of ivory the gods have dreamt,
  And satsuma as dear,
Of bronzes whose mysterious mint
  Seems not of now or here-



IO

 

NIRVANA DAYS



I'd buy and dream and dream and buy,
  Lost far in Maiya's sphere.



Then gathering up my gains at last,
  Mid " sayonaras " soft
And bows and gentle courtesies
  Repeated oft and oft,
My host and I should part-" 0 please
  The skies much weal to waft
His years," I'd think, then cross San-jo
  To fair Chion-in aloft.



For set aloft and set apart,
  Beyond the city's din,
Under the shade of ancient heights
  Lies templed calm Chion-in.
And there the great bell's booming fills
  Its gates all day, and thin
Low beating on mokugyo, by
  Priests passioning for sin.



I I

 

N NIRVANA DAYS



And there the sun upon its courts
  And carvings, gods and graves,
Rests as no light of earth-lands known,
  Like to Nirvana laves
And washes with sweet under-flow
  Into the soul's far caves.
And no more shall this life seem real
  To one who feels its waves.



"No more! " I'd say, then wander on
  To Kiyomizu-shrine,
Which is so old antiquity's
  Far self cannot divine
Its birth, but knows that Kwannon, she
  Of mercy's might benign,
Has reached her thousand hands alway
  From it to Nippon's line.



And She should hear my many prayers,
  And have my freest gifts.



12

 

NIRVANA DAYS



And many days beside her should
  I watch the crystal rifts
Of Otawa's clear waters earn
  Their way, o'er rocks and drifts,
Beside the trestled temple down-
  Like murmurs of sweet shrifts.



Then, when the city wearied me,
  To Katsura I'd wend-
A garden hid across green miles
  Of rice-lands quaintly penned.
And, by the stork-bestridden lake,
  I'd walk or musing mend
My soul with lotus-memories
  And hopes-without an end.




              III

Or were I in Japan today,
  Hiroshima should call



r3

 

NIRVANA DAYS



My heart-Hiroshima built round
  Her ancient castle wall.
By the low flowering moat where sun
  And silence ever fall
Into a swoon, I'd build again
  Old days of Daimyo thrall.



Of charge and bloody countercharge,
  When many a samurai
Fierce-panoplied fell at its pale,
  Suppressing groan or cry;
Suppressing all but silent hates
  That swept from eye to eye,
While lips smiled decorously on,
  Or mocked urbane goodbye.



Then to the river I would pass
  And drift upon its tide
By many a tea-house hung in bloom
  Above its mirrored side.



14

 

NIRVANA DAYS



And geisha fluttering gay before
  Their guests should pause in pied
Kimono, then with laughter bright
  Behind the shoji hide.



Unto an isle of Ugina's
  Low port my craft should swing,
Or scarce an island seems it now
  To my fair fancying,
But a shrined jut of earth up thro
  The sea from which to sing
Unto the evening star of all
  Night's incarnations bring.



Then backward thro the darkened streets
  I'd walk: long lanterns writ
With ghostly characters should dance
  Beside each door, or flit,
Thin paper spirits, to and fro
  And mow the wind, when it



J5

 

iNsIRVANA DAYS



Dema.nded of them reverence
  And passed with twirl or twit.



What music, too, of samisen
  And koto I should hear!
Tinkle on weirder tinkle thro
  The strangely wistful ear
What shadows on the shoji-door

  Of my dim soul should veer
All night in sleep, and haunt the light
  Of many a coming year!




                  IV

Or were I in Japan today,
  From Ujina I'd sail
For mountain-isled Migajima

  Upon the distance, frail

As the mirage, to Amida,
  Of this world's transient tale,

 
NIRVANA DAYS



Where he sits clothed in boundless light
  And sees it vainly ail.



Up to the great sea-torii,
  Its temple-gate, I'd wind,
There furl my sail beneath its beam;
  And soon my soul should find
WXhat it shall never, tho it sift
  The world elsewhere, and blind
Itself at last with sight of all
  Earth's blisses to mankind.



"Migajima! Migajima!"
  How would enchantment chant
The syllables within me, till
  Desire should cease and pant
Of passion press no more my will-
  But let charmed peace supplant
All thought of birth and death and birth-
  Yea, karma turn askant.



17

 

NIRVANA DAYS



For on Migajima none may
  Give birth and none may die-

Since birth and death are equal sins
  Unto the wise. So I
Should muse all day where the sea spills
  Its murmur softly by
The still stone lanterns all arow
  Under the deathless sky.



And under cryptomeria-tree
  And camphor-tree and pine,
And tall pagoda, rising roof
  On roof into the shine
Of the pure air-red roof on roof,
  WVith memories in each line
Of far Confucian China where
  They first were held divine.



And o'er Aligajima the moon
  Should rise for me again.



IS

 
NIRVANA DAYS



So magical its glow, I dare
  Think of it only when
My heart is strong to shun the snare
  Of witcheries that men
May lose their souls in evermore,
  Nor, after, care nor ken.




                  V

Yes, were I in Japan today
  These things I'd do, and more.
For Ise gleams in royal groves,
  And Nara with its lore,
And Nikko hid in mountains-where
  The Shogun, great of yore,
Built timeless tombs whose glory glooms
  Funereally o'er.



These things I'd do! But last of all,
  On Kamakura's lea,



I9

 


20             NIRVANA     DAYS

         I'd seek Daibutsu's face of calm
            And still the final sea
         Of all the West within me-from
            Its fret and fever free
         My spirit-into patience, peace,
            And passion's mastery.

 







THE YOUNG TO THE OLD



You who are old-
And have fought the fight-
And have won or lost or left the field-
Weigh us not down
With fears of the world, as we run!
With the wisdom that is too right,
The warning to which we cannot yield,
The shadow that follows the sun,
Follows forever!
And with all that desire must leave undone,
Though as a god it endeavor;
Weigh, weigh us not down!



But gird our hope to believe-
That all that is done
                21

 



22            NIRVANA DAYS

      Is done by dream and daring-
      Bid us dream on!
      That Earth was not born
      Or Heaven built of bewaring-
      Yield us the dawn!
      You dreamt your hour-and dared, but we
      Would dream till all you despaired of bc;
      Would dare-till the world,
      Won to a new wayfaring,
      Be thence forever easier upward drawn!

 





OFF THE IRISH COAST



Gulls on the wind,
Crying! crying!
Are you the ghosts
Of Erin's dead
Of the forlorn
Whose days went sighing
Ever for Beauty
That ever fled



Ever for Light
That never kindled
Ever for Song
No lips have sung
Ever for Joy
That ever dwindled
Ever for Love that stung
        23

 







A VISION OF VENUS AN\D ADONIS



I know not where it was I saw them sit,
For in my dreams I had outwandered far
That endless wanderer men call the sea-
Whose winds like incantations wrap the world
And help the moon in her high mysteries.
I know not how it was that I was led
Unto their tryst; or what dim infinite
Of perfect and imperishable night
Hung round, a radiance ineffable;

For I was too intoxicate and tranced
With beauty that I knew was very love.
So when divinity from her had stolen
Into his spirit, as, from fields of myrrh
Or forests of red sandal by the sea,
Steal slaking airs, and he began to speak,
                      24

 


NIRVANA DAYS



I could but gather these few fleeting words:
" Your glance sends fragrance sweeter than the lily,
Your hands are visible bodiments of song,
You are the voice that April light has lost,
Her silence that was music of glad birds.
The wind's heart have you, and its mystery,
When poet Spring comes piping o'er the hills
To make of Tartarus forgotten fear.
Yea all the generations of the world,
Whose whence and whither but the gods shall
    know,
Are vassal to your vows forevermore."
And she, I knew, made answer, for her words
Fell warm as womanhood with wordless things,
'But I had drifted on within my dream,
To that pale space which is oblivion.



25

 





SOMNAMBULISM



Night is above me,
And Night is above the night.
The sea is beside me soughing, or is still.
The earth as a somnambulist moves on
In a strange sleep . . .
A sea-bird cries.
And the cry wakes in me
Dim, dead sea-folk, my sires-
Who more than myself are me.
Who sat on their beach long nights ago and saw
The sea in its silence;
And cursed it or implored:
Or with the Cross defied;
Then on the morrow in their boats went down.
                     26

 
NIRVANA DAYS



                     II

Night is above me . . .
And Night is above the night.
Rocks are about me, and, beyond, the sand .
And the low reluctant tide,
That rushes back to ebb a last farewell
To the flotsam borne so long upon its breast.
Rocks. . . . But the tide is out,
And the slime lies naked, like a thing ashamed
That has no hiding-place.
And the sea-bird hushes-
The bird and all far cries within my blood-
And earth as a somnambulist moves on.



27

 






SERENATA MAGICA



        (Venetian )

My gondola is a black sea-swan,
And glides beneath the moon.
Dark palaces beside me pass,
Like visions in a beryl-glass
Of what shall never be, alas,
  Or what alas been too soon.
Like what shall never be, but in
  The breathing of a swoon.



My gondola is a black sea-swan,
And makes her mystic way
From door to phantom water-door,
While carven balconies hang o'er
            .- 8

 

NIRVANA., DAYS           2



And casements framed for love say more
  Than love can ever say.
Say more than any voice but voice
  Of silent magic may.



My gondola is a black sea-swan-
  Rialto lies behind.
And by me the Salute swings,
A loveliness that must take wings
And vanish, as imaginings
  Within an Afrit's mind;
As vague and vast imaginings
  That can no substance find.



My gondola is a black sea-swan:
  San Marco and the shaft
Of the slim Campanile steal
Into my trance and leave a seal
Upon my senses, like the feel
  Of long enchantment quaffed:



2o)

 



30             NIRVANA DAYS

        Of long enchantments such as songs
          Of sage Al Raschid waft.



        My gondola is a black sea-swan
          And gains to the lagoon,
        Where samphire and sea-lavender
        Around me float or softly stir,
        While far-off Venice still lifts her
           Fair witchery to the moor
         And all that wonder e'er gave birth
           Seems out of beauty hewn.

 





O-SHICHI AND MOTO



  O-Shichi, all my heart today
  Is dreaming of your fate;
  And of your little house that stood
  Beside the temple gate;
  Of its plum-garden hid away
  Behind white paper doors;
And of the young boy-priest who read too late with
    you love-lores.



                       II

  O-Shichi dwelt in Yedo-where
  A thousand wonders dwell.
  Gods, golden palaces and shrines
  That like a charm enspell.
                       31

 

32  NIRVAINTA DAYS



  O-Shichi dwelt among them there,
  More wondrous, she, than all-

A flower some forgetful god had from his hand

    let fall.




                       ITT

  And all her days were as the dream
  On flowers in the sun.

  And all her wavs were as the wave:
  That by Shin-bashi run.

  And in her gaze there was the gleam
  Of stars that cannot wait
Too long for love and so fare forth from heaven
    to find a mate.




                       IV

  O-Shichi dwelt so, till one night

  WNrhen all the city slept,

  When not a paper lantern swung,



32

 
NIRVANA DAYS



When only fire-flies swept
  Soft cipherings of spirit-light
  Across the temple's gloom-
Sudden a cry was heard-the cry that should
   0-Shichi doom.




                      v

  For following the cry came flame,
  A Chaya's roof a-blaze.
  And quickly was the street a stream
  Of stricken folk, whose gaze
  Knew well that when the morning came
  Their homes would be but smoke
Vanished upon the winds: now had O-Shichi's
   fate awoke.




                      VI

 And waited. For at morning priests
 In pity of her years



33

 
NIRVANA DAYS



And desolation led her back
  Behind the great god's spheres;
  The great god Buddha, who of beasts
  And men all mindful was.
o Buddha, in thy very courts O-Shichi learned
   love's laws!



                      VII

 Love of the body and the soul,
 Not of Nirvana's state!
 Love that beyond itself can see
 No beauty wise or great.
 O-Shichi for a moon-a whole
 Moon happy there beheld
 The young boy-priest whose yearning e'er into his
   eyes upwelled.



                      VIII

  So all too soon for her was found
  Elsewhere a kindly thatch.



34

 

NIRVANA DAYS



And all too soon O-Shichi heard
Behind her close love's latch.
They led her from the temple's ground
Into untrysting days.
And all too soon that happy moon was hid in
    sorrow's haze.



                      Ix

 For now at dawn she rose to dress
 With blooms some honored vase,
 Or to embroider or brew tea's
 Sweet ceremonial grace.
 Or she at dusk, in sick distress,
 Before the butsudan,
Must to ancestral tablets pray-not to her Moto-
    San!



                       x



Not unto him, her love,
Her breast, as moon the



who sways
tide,



35

 

NIRVANA DAYS



  Whose breath is incense-Ah, again
  To see him softly glide
  Before the grave god-idol's gaze
  Of inward ecstasy,
To watch the great bell boom for him its mystic
    sutra-plea.



                       xr

  But weeks grew into weariness,
  And weariness to pain,
  And pain to lonely wildness, which
  Set fire unto her brain.
  And, "I will see my love!" distress
  Made fair O-Shichi cry,
"Tho for ten lives away from him I then must live
    and die."



                      XII

 Yet-no! She dared not go to him,
 To her he could not come.



36

 

NIRVANA DAYS



Then, sudden a thought her being swept
  And struck her loud heart dumb.
  Till in her rose confusion dim,
  Fear fighting with Desire-
Which to O-Shichi took the shape of Fudo, god
   of fire.



                     XIII

  And Fudo won her: for that night
  Did fond O-Shichi dare
  To set aflame her father's house,
  Hoping again to share
  The temple with her acolyte,
  Her lover-priest, who, spent
With speechless passion for her face, in vain strove
    to repent.



                      xIV

  But ah! what destiny can do
  Is not for folly's hand.



37

 

NIRVANA DAYS



  The flames O-Shichi kindled were
  From sea to Shiba fanned.
  And it was learned a love-sick girl
  Had charred a thousand homes.
Then were the fury-smitten folk like to a sea that
    foams.



                       xv

  And so they seized her: but not in
  The temple-O not there
  Had she been led again by priests
  In pity-led to share
  Her lover's eyes; no, but her sin
  Brought not one dear delight
To poor O-Shichi-who was. now to look on her
    last rite.



                      xvI

  For to the stake they bound her-fire
  They lit-to be her fate. . ..

 



              NIRVANA DAYS                  39

  O-Shichi, have I dreamt it all
  Your face, the temple gate,
  The fair boy-priest shut from desire
  In Buddhahood to-be
Then let me dream and ever dream, 0 flower by
   Yedo's sea.

 






AS OF OLD



The fishermen bade their wives farewell,
(The sun floated merry up the morning)
They sang, to the rhythm of the low-swung swell,
            " 0 come, lads, scorning
            The highlands high,
            There's no warning
            In the blue south sky,
            There's no warning,
            0 :ome, lads, free,
We'll cross the harbor bar and put to sea!"



The fisherwives prayed, the sails blew fast,
(O home it is happy where there's hoping)
They prayed-till the mist dimmed each dim mast:
                       40

 

NIRVANA DAYS



           Then " We're not moping,"
           They sweetly sang,
           " \Vinds come groping
           And clouds o'erhang,
           But we're not moping
           Tho left ashore;
They'll come to us at dusk when day is o'er."



But swifter than God the sea-quake came,
(The fishers they were swallowed in its swirling)
o swifter than men could name God's name.
           And white waves curling
           Hissed in to shore.
           The sea-birds whirling
           Saw what, dashed hoar
           The sea-birds whirling
           Saw dead upborne
The fishers that went forth upon the morn.



4I

 






A PRAYER



One cricket left, of summer's choir.
One glow-worm, flashing life's last fire.

One frog with leathern croak
   Beneath the oak,-
     And the pool stands leao;en
 Where November twilights deaden
   Day's unspent desire.



One star in heaven-East or West.
One wind-a gypsy seeking rest.
  One prayer within my heart-
  For all who part
     Upon Death's dark portal,
  With no hope of an immortal
    Morrow for life's quest.
               42

 







THE SONG OF A NATURE WORSHIPER



Live! Live! Live!
O send no day unto death,
Undrained of the light, of the song, of the dew,
Distilling within its breath.
Drink deep of the sun, drink deep of the night,
Drink deep of the tempest's brew,
Of summer, of winter, of autumn, of spring-
Whose flight can give what men never give !-
      Live!



Live! Live! Live!
And love life's every throb:
The twinkling of shadows enmeshed in the trees,
The passionate sunset's sob;
1The hurtling of wind, the heaving of hill,
                    43

 


NIRVANA DAYS



The moon-dizzy cloud, the seas
That sweep with infinite sweeping all shores,
And thrill with a joy unfugitive !-
      Live !



Live ! Live! Live!
Unloose from custom and care,
From duty and sorrow and clinging design
Thy soul, through the silent Air.
Go into the fields where Nature's alone
And drink from her mystic wine
Divinity-till thou art even as She,
Great all ills of the world to forgive
      Live!



44

 






THE INFINITE'S QUEST



All night the rain
And the wind that beat
Dull wings of pain
On the seas without.
All night a Voice
That broke in my brain
And blew blind thoughts about.



All night they whirled
As a haunted throng
From some d(im world
WXhere there is no rest.
All night the rain,
And the wind that swirled,
And the Infinite's lone quest.
          45

 







LAD AND LASS



I heard the buds open their lips and whisper,
          Whisper,
              " Spring is here!"
          The robins listened
          And sang it loud.
          The blue-birds came
          In a fluttering crowd.
          The cardinal preached
          It high and proud,
              Spring!



And thro the warm earth their song went trilling
          Trilling,
              "Wake! Arise!"
          The kingcups quickly
                     46

 

NIRVANA DAYS



Assembled, strong.
The bluets stept
From the moss in throng.
Like fairies too
Came the cress along.
    Spring!



And love in your breast. my lass, awaking-
         Waking.
             Lovc was born!
         Your eyes were kindled,
         Your lips were warm,
         Wild beauties broke
         From your face and form.
         And all my heart
         Was a heaven-storm,
              Was Spring !



47

 






THE STRONG MAN TO HIS SIRES



Tonight as I was riding on a wave
  Of triumph and of glory,
A Question suddenly, as from the grave,
  Rose in me, culpatory.



"Whence come to you this joyance and
      strength "
  It said, "this might of vision
This will that measures all things to its
  That cuts with calm decision



this



length,



"This blood within your veins, that is as wine
  Which Destiny's self blesses,
Whence flows it, from what grape that is divine,
  Or trodden from what presses
                      48

 

NIRVANA DAYS



"Do you so proud forget what hands have borne
  You to the heights and crowned you
Would you behold what sackcloth has been worn
  That laurels may surround you" . . .



"I would-O lips invisible! whose breath "-
  I answered-" so arraigns me;
Whose voice is as a sound sent forth of Death,
  And like to Death entrains me.



"I would! For if the flesh of me and soul
  Are fibred with the ages,
My triumph is of them and manifold
  Of all life's mystic stages."



So, forth they came-a vast ancestral line,
  Upon my vision teeming,
All shapes whose natal semblance could affine
  Them to me, faintly gleaming.



49

 


NIRVANA DAYS



I knew them as I knew myself, and feit
  The Day of each within me;
And so began to speak, the while they dwelt
  About-they who had been me.



"My Sires," I said, " think you I have forgot
  The fervor of your living
How into me is moulded all you thought.
  Of getting or of giving



"Think you I do not feel my every drop
  Of blood is as an ocean
In which are surging and will never stop
  All things your hope gave motion



"My senses, that are swift to take delight
  And shrine it in their being,
Are they not born of all your faith. and bright
  WNith all your bliss of seeing



so

 

NIRVANA DAYS



"And my full heart within whose fount I hear
  Your voices that are vanished,
Can it forget its gratitude or fear
  Foes that you braved and banished



"No. But the blindly striving years that led
  You to the Rose's beauty,
Or taught you out of Ill to disembed
  The golden veins of Duty;



"The wasting and incalculable wants
  That in you quailed or quivered;
The longing that lit stars no dark now daunts-
  I know, -whio stand delivered!



"To you then from whose throng the centuries
  Long dead slip now their shrouding,
Who from oblivion's profundities
  Rise up, and round are crowding,



5 1

 



INIRVANTA DAYS



"I say, Immortal do I hold your will!
  Its gathered might ascending
Is sacred with the unconquerable might
  Of God-who sees its ending;



"Of God-on whose strong Vine. Heredity,
  Rooted in Voids primeval,
The world climbs ever to some great To-Be
  Of passion or reprieval."



I said-and on night's infinite beheld
  Silence alone beside me;
And majesty of greater meanings welled

  Into my soul, to guide me.



52

 







AT STRATFORD



I could not sleep. The wind poured in my ear
Immortal names-Lear, Hamlet, Hal, Macbeth,
And thro the night I heard the rushing breath
Of ghost and witch and fool go whirling by.
I followed them, tinder the phantom sphere
Of the pale moon, along the Avon's near
And nimbused flowing, followed to his bier-
Who had evoked them first with mighty eye.
And as I gazed upon the peaceful spire
That points above earth's most immortal dust,
I could have asked God for His starry Lyre
Out of the skies to play my praise upon.
I could have shouted, as, 0 Wind, thou must,
" Here lies Humanity: kneel, and pass on."



5.3

 






THE IMAGE PAINTER



Up under the roof, in cold or heat,
Far up, aloof from the city street,
    She sat all day
    And painted gray
Cold idols, scarcely human.
And if she thought of ease and rest,
Of love that spells God's name the best,
Her few friends heard but one request-
" Pray for a tired little woman."



She sat from dawn till weary dusk.
Her hands plied on-with but a husk
    Of bread to break
    And for Christ's sake
To bless: was Hc not human 
                .;  

 
NIRVANA DAYS



Then when the light would leave her brush
She'd sit there still, in the dim hush,
And say aloud, lest tears should rush-
" Pray for a tired little woman."



They found her so-one morning when
A knock brought no sweet welcome ken
    Of her still face
    And cloistral grace
And brow so bravely human.
They found her by the window bar,
Her eyes fixed where had been some star.
O you that rest, where'er you are,
  Pray for the tired little woman.



.55

 






WNANDA



"She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the mountain springs;"


  I'm Wanda born
  Of the mirthful morn
So I heard the red-buds whisper

  To the forest beech,
  Tho I know that each

Is but a gossipy lisper.




  I taunt the brook

  WVith his hair outshook
O'er the weir so cool and mossy,

 
NIRVANA DAYS



And mock the crow
As he peers below
With a caw that's vain and saucy.






Where the wahoo reds
And the sumac spreads
Tall plumes o'er the purple privet,
  I beg a kiss

  Of the wind, tho I wis
Right well he never will give it.






  I hide in the nook
  And sunbeams look
For me everywhere, like fairies.
  Then out I glide
  By the gray deer's side-
Ha, ha, but he never tarries!



5,7

 

NIRVANA DAYS



  Then I fright the hare
  From his turfy lair
And after him send a volley
  Of song that stops
  Him under the copse
In wonderment at my folly.



  And Autumn cries
  " Be sad! " or sighs
Thro her nun lips palely pouting.
  But then I leap
  To the woods and keep
It wild with gleeing and shouting.



And when the sun
  Has almost spun
A path to his far Golconda,
  I climb the hill
  And listen, still,
XWhile he calls me-" WNanda! Wanda!'



58

 



NIRVANA DAYS



And then I go
To the valley-Oh,
My dreams are sweeter than dreaming!
All night I play
Over lands of Fay,
In delight that seems not seeming.



5)

 





IN A STORM



            (To a Petrel)

All day long in the spindrift swinging,
Bird of the sea! bird of the sea!
How I would that I had thy winging-
How I envy thee!


How I would that I had