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     Blossom again in song。







JUGURTHA



How cold are thy baths; Apollo!

  Cried the African monarch; the splendid;

As down to his death in the hollow

  Dark dungeons of Rome he descended;

  Uncrowned; unthroned; unattended;

How cold are thy baths; Apollo!



How cold are thy baths; Apollo!

  Cried the Poet; unknown; unbefriended;

As the vision; that lured him to follow;

  With the mist and the darkness blended;

  And the dream of his life was ended;

How cold are thy baths; Apollo!







THE IRON PEN



Made from a fetter of Bonnivard; the Prisoner of Chillon; the

handle of wood from the Frigate Constitution; and bound with a

circlet of gold; inset with three precious stones from Siberia;

Ceylon; and Maine。



I thought this Pen would arise

From the casket where it lies

  Of itself would arise and write

My thanks and my surprise。



When you gave it me under the pines;

I dreamed these gems from the mines

  Of Siberia; Ceylon; and Maine

Would glimmer as thoughts in the lines;



That this iron link from the chain

Of Bonnivard might retain

  Some verse of the Poet who sang

Of the prisoner and his pain;



That this wood from the frigate's mast

Might write me a rhyme at last;

  As it used to write on the sky

The song of the sea and the blast。



But motionless as I wait;

Like a Bishop lying in state

  Lies the Pen; with its mitre of gold;

And its jewels inviolate。



Then must I speak; and say

That the light of that summer day

  In the garden under the pines

Shall not fade and pass away。



I shall see you standing there;

Caressed by the fragrant air;

  With the shadow on your face;

And the sunshine on your hair。



I shall hear the sweet low tone

Of a voice before unknown;

  Saying; 〃This is from me to you

From me; and to you alone。〃



And in words not idle and vain

I shall answer and thank you again

  For the gift; and the grace of the gift;

O beautiful Helen of Maine!



And forever this gift will be

As a blessing from you to me;

  As a drop of the dew of your youth

On the leaves of an aged tree。







ROBERT BURNS



I see amid the fields of Ayr

A ploughman; who; in foul and fair;

      Sings at his task

So clear; we know not if it is

The laverock's song we hear; or his;

      Nor care to ask。



For him the ploughing of those fields

A more ethereal harvest yields

      Than sheaves of grain;

Songs flush with Purple bloom the rye;

The plover's call; the curlew's cry;

      Sing in his brain。



Touched by his hand; the wayside weed

Becomes a flower; the lowliest reed

      Beside the stream

Is clothed with beauty; gorse and grass

And heather; where his footsteps pass;

      The brighter seem。



He sings of love; whose flame illumes

The darkness of lone cottage rooms;

      He feels the force;

The treacherous undertow and stress

Of wayward passions; and no less

      The keen remorse。



At moments; wrestling with his fate;

His voice is harsh; but not with hate;

      The brushwood; hung

Above the tavern door; lets fall

Its bitter leaf; its drop of gall

      Upon his tongue。



But still the music of his song

Rises o'er all elate and strong;

      Its master…chords

Are Manhood; Freedom; Brotherhood;

Its discords but an interlude

      Between the words。



And then to die so young and leave

Unfinished what he might achieve!

      Yet better sure

Is this; than wandering up and down

An old man in a country town;

      Infirm and poor。



For now he haunts his native land

As an immortal youth; his hand

      Guides every plough;

He sits beside each ingle…nook;

His voice is in each rushing brook;

      Each rustling bough。



His presence haunts this room to…night;

A form of mingled mist and light

      From that far coast。

Welcome beneath this roof of mine!

Welcome! this vacant chair is thine;

      Dear guest and ghost!







HELEN OF TYRE



What phantom is this that appears

Through the purple mist of the years;

   Itself but a mist like these?

A woman of cloud and of fire;

It is she; it is Helen of Tyre;

   The town in the midst of the seas。



O Tyre! in thy crowded streets

The phantom appears and retreats;

   And the Israelites that sell

Thy lilies and lions of brass;

Look up as they see her pass;

   And murmur 〃Jezebel!〃



Then another phantom is seen

At her side; in a gray gabardine;

   With beard that floats to his waist;

It is Simon Magus; the Seer;

He speaks; and she pauses to hear

   The words he utters in haste。



He says: 〃From this evil fame;

From this life of sorrow and shame;

   I will lift thee and make thee mine;

Thou hast been Queen Candace;

And Helen of Troy; and shalt be

   The Intelligence Divine!〃



Oh; sweet as the breath of morn;

To the fallen and forlorn

   Are whispered words of praise;

For the famished heart believes

The falsehood that tempts and deceives;

   And the promise that betrays。



So she follows from land to land

The wizard's beckoning hand;

   As a leaf is blown by the gust;

Till she vanishes into night。

O reader; stoop down and write

   With thy finger in the dust。



O town in the midst of the seas;

With thy rafts of cedar trees;

   Thy merchandise and thy ships;

Thou; too; art become as naught;

A phantom; a shadow; a thought;

   A name upon men's lips。







ELEGIAC



Dark is the morning with mist; in the narrow mouth of the harbor

  Motionless lies the sea; under its curtain of cloud;

Dreamily glimmer the sails of ships on the distant horizon;

  Like to the towers of a town; built on the verge of the sea。



Slowly and stately and still; they sail forth into the ocean;

  With them sail my thoughts over the limitless deep;

Farther and farther away; borne on by unsatisfied longings;

  Unto Hesperian isles; unto Ausonian shores。



Now they have vanished away; have disappeared in the ocean;

  Sunk are the towers of the town into the depths of the sea!

AU have vanished but those that; moored in the neighboring

roadstead;

  Sailless at anchor ride; looming so large in the mist。



Vanished; too; are the thoughts; the dim; unsatisfied longings;

  Sunk are the turrets of cloud into the ocean of dreams;

While in a haven of rest my heart is riding at anchor;

  Held by the chains of love; held by the anchors of trust!







OLD ST。 DAVID'S AT RADNOR



What an image of peace and rest

  Is this little church among its graves!

All is so quiet; the troubled breast;

The wounded spirit; the heart oppressed;

  Here may find the repose it craves。



See; how the ivy climbs and expands

  Over this humble hermitage;

And seems to caress with its little hands

The rough; gray stones; as a child that stands

  Caressing the wrinkled cheeks of age!



You cross the threshold; and dim and small

  Is the space that serves for the Shepherd's Fold;

The narrow aisle; the bare; white wall;

The pews; and the pulpit quaint and tall;

  Whisper and say: 〃Alas! we are old。〃



Herbert's chapel at Bemerton

  Hardly more spacious is than this;

But Poet and Pastor; blent in one;

Clothed with a splendor; as of the sun;

  That lowly and holy edifice。



It is not the wall of stone without

  That makes the building small or great

But the soul's light shining round about;

And the faith that overcometh doubt;

  And the love that stronger is than hate。



Were I a pilgrim in search of peace;

  Were I a pastor of Holy Church;

More than a Bishop's diocese

Should I prize this place of rest; and release

  From farther longing and farther search。



Here would I stay; and let the world

  With its distant thunder roar and roll;

Storms do not rend the sail that is furled;

Nor like a dead leaf; tossed and whirled

  In an eddy of wind; is the anchored soul。







FOLK SONGS



THE SIFTING OF PETER



In St。 Luke's Gospel we are told

How Peter in the days of old

      Was sifted;

And now; though ages intervene;

Sin is the same; while time and scene

      Are shifted。



Satan desires us; great and small;

As wheat to sift us; and we all

      Are tempted;

Not one; however rich or great;

Is by his station or estate

      Exempted。



No house so safely guarded is

But he; by some device of his;

      Can enter;

No heart hath armor so complete

But he can pierce with arrows fleet

      Its centre。



For all at last the cock will crow;

Who hear the warning voice; but go

      Unheeding;

Till thrice and more they have denied

The Man of Sorrows; crucified

      And bleeding。



One look of that pale suffering face

Will make us feel the deep disgrace

      Of weakness;

We shall be sifted till the strength

Of self…conceit be changed at length

      To meekness。



Wounds of the soul; though healed will ache;

The reddening scars remain; and make

      Confession;

Lost innocence returns no more;

We are not what we were before

      Transgression。



But noble souls; through dust and heat;

Rise from disaster and defeat

      The stronger;

And conscious still of the divine

Within them; lie on earth supine

      No longer。







MAIDEN AND WEATHERCOCK



MAIDEN

O weathercock on the village spire;

With your golden feathers all on fire;

Tell me; what can you see from your perch

Above there over the tower of the church?



WEATHERCOCK。

I can see the roofs and the streets below;

And the people moving to and fro;

And beyond; without either roof or street;

The great salt sea; and the fisherman's fleet。



I can see a ship come sailing in

Beyond the headlands and harbor of Lynn;

And a young man standing on the deck;

With a silken kerchief round his neck。



Now he is pre

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