BIRDS OF PASSAGEFLIGHT THE FIFTHTHE HERONS OF ELMWOODWarm and still is the summer night,As here by the river's brink I wander;White overhead are the stars, and whiteThe glimmering lamps on the hillside yonder.Silent are all the sounds of day;Nothing I hear but the chirp of crickets,And the cry of the herons winging their wayO'er the poet's house in the Elmwood thickets.Call to him, herons, as slowly you passTo your roosts in the haunts of the exiled thrushes,Sing him the song of the green morass;And the tides that water the reeds and rushes.Sing him the mystical Song of the Hern,And the secret that baffles our utmost seeking;For only a sound of lament we discern,And cannot interpret the words you are speaking.Sing of the air, and the wild delightOf wings that uplift and winds that uphold you,The joy of freedom, the rapture of flightThrough the drift of the floating mists that infold you.Of the landscape lying so far below,With its towns and rivers and desert places;And the splendor of light above, and the glowOf the limitless, blue, ethereal spaces.Ask him if songs of the Troubadours,Or of Minnesingers in old black-letter,Sound in his ears more sweet than yours,And if yours are not sweeter and wilder and better.Sing to him, say to him, here at his gate,Where the boughs of the stately elms are meeting,Some one hath lingered to meditate,And send him unseen this friendly greeting;That many another hath done the same,Though not by a sound was the silence broken;The surest pledge of a deathless nameIs the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.A DUTCH PICTURESimon Danz has come home again,From cruising about with his buccaneers;He has singed the beard of the King of Spain,And carried away the Dean of JaenAnd sold him in Algiers.In his house by the Maese, with its roof of tiles,And weathercocks flying aloft in air,There are silver tankards of antique styles,Plunder of convent and castle, and pilesOf carpets rich and rare.In his tulip-garden there by the town,Overlooking the sluggish stream,With his Moorish cap and dressing-gown,The old sea-captain, hale and brown,Walks in a waking dream.A smile in his gray mustachio lurksWhenever he thinks of the King of Spain,And the listed tulips look like Turks,And the silent gardener as he worksIs changed to the Dean of Jaen.The windmills on the outermostVerge of the landscape in the haze,To him are towers on the Spanish coast,With whiskered sentinels at their post,Though this is the river Maese.But when the winter rains begin,He sits and smokes by the blazing brands,And old seafaring men come in,Goat-bearded, gray, and with double chin,And rings upon their hands.They sit there in the shadow and shineOf the flickering fire of the winter night;Figures in color and designLike those by Rembrandt of the Rhine,Half darkness and half light.And they talk of ventures lost or won,And their talk is ever and ever the same,While they drink the red wine of Tarragon,From the cellars of some Spanish Don,Or convent set on flame.Restless at times with heavy stridesHe paces his parlor to and fro;He is like a ship that at anchor rides,And swings with the rising and falling tides,And tugs at her anchor-tow.Voices mysterious far and near,Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,Are calling and whispering in his ear,"Simon Danz! Why stayest thou here?Come forth and follow me!"So he thinks he shall take to the sea againFor one more cruise with his buccaneers,To singe the beard of the King of Spain,And capture another Dean of JaenAnd sell him in Algiers.CASTLES IN SPAINHow much of my young heart, O Spain,Went out to thee in days of yore!What dreams romantic filled my brain,And summoned back to life againThe Paladins of CharlemagneThe Cid Campeador!And shapes more shadowy than these,In the dim twilight half revealed;Phoenician galleys on the seas,The Roman camps like hives of bees,The Goth uplifting from his kneesPelayo on his shield.It was these memories perchance,From annals of remotest eld,That lent the colors of romanceTo every trivial circumstance,And changed the form and countenanceOf all that I beheld.Old towns, whose history lies hidIn monkish chronicle or rhyme,Burgos, the birthplace of the Cid,Zamora and Valladolid,Toledo, built and walled amidThe wars of Wamba's time;The long, straight line of the high-way,The distant town that seems so near,The peasants in the fields, that stayTheir toil to cross themselves and pray,When from the belfry at middayThe Angelus they hear;White crosses in the mountain pass,Mules gay with tassels, the loud dinOf muleteers, the tethered assThat crops the dusty wayside grass,And cavaliers with spurs of brassAlighting at the inn;White hamlets hidden in fields of wheat,White cities slumbering by the sea,White sunshine flooding square and street,Dark mountain-ranges, at whose feetThe river-beds are dry with heat,—All was a dream to me.Yet something sombre and severeO'er the enchanted landscape reigned;A terror in the atmosphereAs if King Philip listened near,Or Torquemada, the austere,His ghostly sway maintained.The softer Andalusian skiesDispelled the sadness and the gloom;There Cadiz by the seaside lies,And Seville's orange-orchards rise,Making the land a paradiseOf beauty and of bloom.There Cordova is hidden amongThe palm, the olive, and the vine;Gem of the South, by poets sung,And in whose Mosque Ahmanzor hungAs lamps the bells that once had rungAt Compostella's shrine.But over all the rest supreme,The star of stars, the cynosure,The artist's and the poet's theme,The young man's vision, the old man's dream,—Granada by its winding stream,The city of the Moor!And there the Alhambra still recallsAladdin's palace of delight;Allah il Allah! through its hallsWhispers the fountain as it falls,The Darro darts beneath its walls,The hills with snow are white.Ah yes, the hills are white with snow,And cold with blasts that bite and freeze;But in the happy vale belowThe orange and pomegranate grow,And wafts of air toss to and froThe blossoming almond-trees.The Vega cleft by the Xenil,The fascination and allureOf the sweet landscape chains the will;The traveller lingers on the hill,His parted lips are breathing stillThe last sigh of the Moor.How like a ruin overgrownWith flower's that hide the rents of time,Stands now the Past that I have known,Castles in Spain, not built of stoneBut of white summer clouds, and blownInto this little mist of rhyme!VITTORIA COLONNA.VITTORIA COLONNA, on the death of her hushand, the Marchese di Pescara, retired to her castle at Ischia (Inarime), and there wrote the Ode upon his death, which gained her the title of Divine.Once more, once more, Inarime,I see thy purple hills!—once moreI hear the billows of the bayWash the white pebbles on thy shore.High o'er the sea-surge and the sands,Like a great galleon wrecked and castAshore by storms, thy castle stands,A mouldering landmark of the Past.Upon its terrace-walk I seeA phantom gliding to and fro;It is Colonna,—it is sheWho lived and loved so long ago.Pescara's beautiful young wife,The type of perfect womanhood,Whose life was love, the life of life,That time and change and death withstood.For death, that breaks the marriage bandIn others, only closer pressedThe wedding-ring upon her handAnd closer locked and barred her breast.She knew the life-long martyrdom,The weariness, the endless painOf waiting for some one to comeWho nevermore would come again.The shadows of the chestnut-trees,The odor of the orange blooms,The song of birds, and, more than these,The silence of deserted rooms;The respiration of the sea,The soft caresses of the air,All things in nature seemed to beBut ministers of her despair;Till the o'erburdened heart, so longImprisoned in itself, found ventAnd voice in one impassioned songOf inconsolable lament.Then as the sun, though hidden from sight,Transmutes to gold the leaden mist,Her life was interfused with light,From realms that, though unseen, exist,Inarime! Inarime!Thy castle on the crags aboveIn dust shall crumble and decay,But not the memory of her love.THE REVENGE OF RAIN-IN-THE-FACEIn that desolate land and lone,Where the Big Horn and YellowstoneRoar down their mountain path,By their fires the Sioux ChiefsMuttered their woes and griefsAnd the menace of their wrath."Revenge!" cried Rain-in-the-Face,"Revenue upon all the raceOf the White Chief with yellow hair!"And the mountains dark and highFrom their crags re-echoed the cryOf his anger and despair.In the meadow, spreading wideBy woodland and riversideThe Indian village stood;All was silent as a dream,Save the rushing a of the streamAnd the blue-jay in the wood.In his war paint and his beads,Like a bison among the reeds,In ambush the Sitting BullLay with three thousand bravesCrouched in the clefts and caves,Savage, unmerciful!Into the fatal snareThe White Chief with yellow hairAnd his three hundred menDashed headlong, sword in hand;But of that gallant bandNot one returned again.The sudden darkness of deathOverwhelmed them like the breathAnd smoke of a furnace fire:By the river's bank, and betweenThe rocks of the ravine,They lay in their bloody attire.But the foemen fled in the night,And Rain-in-the-Face, in his flightUplifted high in airAs a ghastly trophy, boreThe brave heart, that beat no more,Of the White Chief with yellow hair.Whose was the right and the wrong?Sing it, O funeral song,With a voice that is full of tears,And say that our broken faithWrought all this ruin and scathe,In the Year of a Hundred Years.TO THE RIVER YVETTEO lovely river of Yvette!O darling river! like a bride,Some dimpled, bashful, fair Lisette,Thou goest to wed the Orge's tide.Maincourt, and lordly Dampierre,See and salute thee on thy way,And, with a blessing and a prayer,Ring the sweet bells of St. Forget.The valley of Chevreuse in vainWould hold thee in its fond embrace;Thou glidest from its arms againAnd hurriest on with swifter pace.Thou wilt not stay; with restless feetPursuing still thine onward flight,Thou goest as one in haste to meetHer sole desire, her head's delight.O lovely river of Yvette!O darling stream! on balanced wingsThe wood-birds sang the chansonnetteThat here a wandering poet sings.THE EMPEROR'S GLOVE"Combien faudrait-il de peaux d'Espagne pour faire un gant de cette grandeur?" A play upon the words gant, a glove, and Gand, the French for Ghent.On St. Baron's tower, commandingHalf of Flanders, his domain,Charles the Emperor once was standing,While beneath him on the landingStood Duke Alva and his train.Like a print in books of fables,Or a model made for show,With its pointed roofs and gables,Dormer windows, scrolls and labels,Lay the city far below.Through its squares and streets and alleysPoured the populace of Ghent;As a routed army rallies,Or as rivers run through valleys,Hurrying to their homes they went"Nest of Lutheran misbelievers!"Cried Duke Alva as he gazed;"Haunt of traitors and deceivers,Stronghold of insurgent weavers,Let it to the ground be razed!"On the Emperor's cap the featherNods, as laughing he replies:"How many skins of Spanish leather,Think you, would, if stitched togetherMake a glove of such a size?"A BALLAD OF THE FRENCH FLEETOCTOBER, 1746MR. THOMAS PRINCE loquitur.A fleet with flags arrayedSailed from the port of Brest,And the Admiral's ship displayedThe signal: "Steer southwest."For this Admiral D'AnvilleHad sworn by cross and crownTo ravage with fire and steelOur helpless Boston Town.There were rumors in the street,In the houses there was fearOf the coming of the fleet,And the danger hovering near.And while from mouth to mouthSpread the tidings of dismay,I stood in the Old South,Saying humbly: "Let us pray!"O Lord! we would not advise;But if in thy ProvidenceA tempest should ariseTo drive the French fleet hence,And scatter it far and wide,Or sink it in the sea,We should be satisfied,And thine the glory be."This was the prayer I made,For my soul was all on flame,And even as I prayedThe answering tempest came;It came with a mighty power,Shaking the windows and walls,And tolling the bell in the tower,As it tolls at funerals.The lightning suddenlyUnsheathed its flaming sword,And I cried: "Stand still, and seeThe salvation of the Lord!"The heavens were black with cloud,The sea was white with hail,And ever more fierce and loudBlew the October gale.The fleet it overtook,And the broad sails in the vanLike the tents of Cushan shook,Or the curtains of Midian.Down on the reeling decksCrashed the o'erwhelming seas;Ah, never were there wrecksSo pitiful as these!Like a potter's vessel brokeThe great ships of the line;They were carried away as a smoke,Or sank like lead in the brine.O Lord! before thy pathThey vanished and ceased to be,When thou didst walk in wrathWith thine horses through the sea!THE LEAP OF ROUSHAN BEGMounted on Kyrat strong and fleet,His chestnut steed with four white feet,Roushan Beg, called Kurroglou,Son of the road and bandit chief,Seeking refuge and relief,Up the mountain pathway flew.Such was Kyrat's wondrous speed,Never yet could any steedReach the dust-cloud in his course.More than maiden, more than wife,More than gold and next to lifeRoushan the Robber loved his horse.In the land that lies beyondErzeroum and Trebizond,Garden-girt his fortress stood;Plundered khan, or caravanJourneying north from Koordistan,Gave him wealth and wine and food.Seven hundred and fourscoreMen at arms his livery wore,Did his bidding night and day.Now, through regions all unknown,He was wandering, lost, alone,Seeking without guide his way.Suddenly the pathway ends,Sheer the precipice descends,Loud the torrent roars unseen;Thirty feet from side to sideYawns the chasm; on air must rideHe who crosses this ravine.Following close in his pursuit,At the precipice's foot,Reyhan the Arab of OrfahHalted with his hundred men,Shouting upward from the glen,"La Illah illa Allah!"Gently Roushan Beg caressedKyrat's forehead, neck, and breast;Kissed him upon both his eyes;Sang to him in his wild way,As upon the topmost spraySings a bird before it flies."O my Kyrat, O my steed,Round and slender as a reed,Carry me this peril through!Satin housings shall be thine,Shoes of gold, O Kyrat mine,O thou soul of Kurroglou!"Soft thy skin as silken skein,Soft as woman's hair thy mane,Tender are thine eyes and true;All thy hoofs like ivory shine,Polished bright; O, life of mine,Leap, and rescue Kurroglou!"Kyrat, then, the strong and fleet,Drew together his four white feet,Paused a moment on the verge,Measured with his eye the space,And into the air's embraceLeaped as leaps the ocean surge.As the ocean surge o'er sandBears a swimmer safe to land,Kyrat safe his rider bore;Rattling down the deep abyssFragments of the precipiceRolled like pebbles on a shore.Roushan's tasselled cap of redTrembled not upon his head,Careless sat he and upright;Neither hand nor bridle shook,Nor his head he turned to look,As he galloped out of sight.Flash of harness in the air,Seen a moment like the glareOf a sword drawn from its sheath;Thus the phantom horseman passed,And the shadow that he castLeaped the cataract underneath.Reyhan the Arab held his breathWhile this vision of life and deathPassed above him. "Allahu!"Cried he. "In all KoordistanLives there not so brave a manAs this Robber Kurroglou!"HAROUN AL RASCHIDOne day, Haroun Al Raschid read A book wherein the poet said:—"Where are the kings, and where the rest Of those who once the world possessed?"They're gone with all their pomp and show, They're gone the way that thou shalt go."O thou who choosest for thy share The world, and what the world calls fair,"Take all that it can give or lend, But know that death is at the end!"Haroun Al Raschid bowed his head: Tears fell upon the page he read.KING TRISANKUViswamitra the Magician,By his spells and incantations,Up to Indra's realms elysianRaised Trisanku, king of nations.Indra and the gods offendedHurled him downward, and descendingIn the air he hung suspended,With these equal powers contending.Thus by aspirations lifted,By misgivings downward driven,Human hearts are tossed and driftedMidway between earth and heaven.A WRAITH IN THE MIST"Sir, I should build me a fortification, if Icame to live here." —BOSWELL'S Johnson.On the green little isle of Inchkenneth,Who is it that walks by the shore,So gay with his Highland blue bonnet,So brave with his targe and claymore?His form is the form of a giant,But his face wears an aspect of pain;Can this be the Laird of Inchkenneth?Can this be Sir Allan McLean?Ah, no! It is only the Rambler,The Idler, who lives in Bolt Court,And who says, were he Laird of Inchkenneth,He would wall himself round with a fort.THE THREE KINGSThree Kings came riding from far away,Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar;Three Wise Men out of the East were they,And they travelled by night and they slept by day,For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.The star was so beautiful, large, and clear,That all the other stars of the skyBecame a white mist in the atmosphere,And by this they knew that the coming was nearOf the Prince foretold in the prophecy.Three caskets they bore on their saddle-bows,Three caskets of gold with golden keys;Their robes were of crimson silk with rowsOf bells and pomegranates and furbelows,Their turbans like blossoming almond-trees.And so the Three Kings rode into the West,Through the dusk of night, over hill and dell,And sometimes they nodded with beard on breastAnd sometimes talked, as they paused to rest,With the people they met at some wayside well."Of the child that is born," said Baltasar,"Good people, I pray you, tell us the news;For we in the East have seen his star,And have ridden fast, and have ridden far,To find and worship the King of the Jews."And the people answered, "You ask in vain;We know of no king but Herod the Great!"They thought the Wise Men were men insane,As they spurred their horses across the plain,Like riders in haste, and who cannot wait.And when they came to Jerusalem,Herod the Great, who had heard this thing,Sent for the Wise Men and questioned them;And said, "Go down unto Bethlehem,And bring me tidings of this new king."So they rode away; and the star stood still,The only one in the gray of mornYes, it stopped, it stood still of its own free will,Right over Bethlehem on the hill,The city of David where Christ was born.And the Three Kings rode through the gate and the guard,Through the silent street, till their horses turnedAnd neighed as they entered the great inn-yard;But the windows were closed, and the doors were barred,And only a light in the stable burned.And cradled there in the scented hay,In the air made sweet by the breath of kine,The little child in the manger lay,The child, that would be king one dayOf a kingdom not human but divine.His mother Mary of NazarethSat watching beside his place of rest,Watching the even flow of his breath,For the joy of life and the terror of deathWere mingled together in her breast.They laid their offerings at his feet:The gold was their tribute to a King,The frankincense, with its odor sweet,Was for the Priest, the Paraclete,The myrrh for the body's burying.And the mother wondered and bowed her head,And sat as still as a statue of stone;Her heart was troubled yet comforted,Remembering what the Angel had saidOf an endless reign and of David's throne.Then the Kings rode out of the city gate,With a clatter of hoofs in proud array;But they went not back to Herod the Great,For they knew his malice and feared his hate,And returned to their homes by another way.SONGStay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;Home-keeping hearts are happiest,For those that wander they know not whereAre full of trouble and full of care;To stay at home is best.Weary and homesick and distressed,They wander east, they wander west,And are baffled and beaten and blown aboutBy the winds of the wilderness of doubt;To stay at home is best.Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;The bird is safest in its nest;O'er all that flutter their wings and flyA hawk is hovering in the sky;To stay at home is best.THE WHITE CZARThe White Czar is Peter the Great. Batyushka, Father dear, and Gosudar, Sovereign, are titles the Russian people are fond of giving to the Czar in their popular songs.Dost thou see on the rampart's heightThat wreath of mist, in the lightOf the midnight moon? O, hist!It is not a wreath of mist;It is the Czar, the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!He has heard, among the dead,The artillery roll o'erhead;The drums and the tramp of feetOf his soldiery in the street;He is awake! the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!He has heard in the grave the criesOf his people: "Awake! arise!"He has rent the gold brocadeWhereof his shroud was made;He is risen! the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!From the Volga and the DonHe has led his armies on,Over river and morass,Over desert and mountain pass;The Czar, the Orthodox Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!He looks from the mountain-chainToward the seas, that cleave in twainThe continents; his handPoints southward o'er the landOf Roumili! O Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!And the words break from his lips:"I am the builder of ships,And my ships shall sail these seasTo the Pillars of Hercules!I say it; the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!"The Bosphorus shall be free;It shall make room for me;And the gates of its water-streetsBe unbarred before my fleets.I say it; the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!"And the Christian shall no moreBe crushed, as heretofore,Beneath thine iron rule,O Sultan of Istamboul!I swear it; I the Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!"DELIASweet as the tender fragrance that survives, When martyred flowers breathe out their little lives, Sweet as a song that once consoled our pain, But never will be sung to us again, Is thy remembrance. Now the hour of rest Hath come to thee. Sleep, darling; it is best.
Warm and still is the summer night,As here by the river's brink I wander;White overhead are the stars, and whiteThe glimmering lamps on the hillside yonder.
Silent are all the sounds of day;Nothing I hear but the chirp of crickets,And the cry of the herons winging their wayO'er the poet's house in the Elmwood thickets.
Call to him, herons, as slowly you passTo your roosts in the haunts of the exiled thrushes,Sing him the song of the green morass;And the tides that water the reeds and rushes.
Sing him the mystical Song of the Hern,And the secret that baffles our utmost seeking;For only a sound of lament we discern,And cannot interpret the words you are speaking.
Sing of the air, and the wild delightOf wings that uplift and winds that uphold you,The joy of freedom, the rapture of flightThrough the drift of the floating mists that infold you.
Of the landscape lying so far below,With its towns and rivers and desert places;And the splendor of light above, and the glowOf the limitless, blue, ethereal spaces.
Ask him if songs of the Troubadours,Or of Minnesingers in old black-letter,Sound in his ears more sweet than yours,And if yours are not sweeter and wilder and better.
Sing to him, say to him, here at his gate,Where the boughs of the stately elms are meeting,Some one hath lingered to meditate,And send him unseen this friendly greeting;
That many another hath done the same,Though not by a sound was the silence broken;The surest pledge of a deathless nameIs the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.
Simon Danz has come home again,From cruising about with his buccaneers;He has singed the beard of the King of Spain,And carried away the Dean of JaenAnd sold him in Algiers.
In his house by the Maese, with its roof of tiles,And weathercocks flying aloft in air,There are silver tankards of antique styles,Plunder of convent and castle, and pilesOf carpets rich and rare.
In his tulip-garden there by the town,Overlooking the sluggish stream,With his Moorish cap and dressing-gown,The old sea-captain, hale and brown,Walks in a waking dream.
A smile in his gray mustachio lurksWhenever he thinks of the King of Spain,And the listed tulips look like Turks,And the silent gardener as he worksIs changed to the Dean of Jaen.
The windmills on the outermostVerge of the landscape in the haze,To him are towers on the Spanish coast,With whiskered sentinels at their post,Though this is the river Maese.
But when the winter rains begin,He sits and smokes by the blazing brands,And old seafaring men come in,Goat-bearded, gray, and with double chin,And rings upon their hands.
They sit there in the shadow and shineOf the flickering fire of the winter night;Figures in color and designLike those by Rembrandt of the Rhine,Half darkness and half light.
And they talk of ventures lost or won,And their talk is ever and ever the same,While they drink the red wine of Tarragon,From the cellars of some Spanish Don,Or convent set on flame.
Restless at times with heavy stridesHe paces his parlor to and fro;He is like a ship that at anchor rides,And swings with the rising and falling tides,And tugs at her anchor-tow.
Voices mysterious far and near,Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,Are calling and whispering in his ear,"Simon Danz! Why stayest thou here?Come forth and follow me!"
So he thinks he shall take to the sea againFor one more cruise with his buccaneers,To singe the beard of the King of Spain,And capture another Dean of JaenAnd sell him in Algiers.
How much of my young heart, O Spain,Went out to thee in days of yore!What dreams romantic filled my brain,And summoned back to life againThe Paladins of CharlemagneThe Cid Campeador!
And shapes more shadowy than these,In the dim twilight half revealed;Phoenician galleys on the seas,The Roman camps like hives of bees,The Goth uplifting from his kneesPelayo on his shield.
It was these memories perchance,From annals of remotest eld,That lent the colors of romanceTo every trivial circumstance,And changed the form and countenanceOf all that I beheld.
Old towns, whose history lies hidIn monkish chronicle or rhyme,Burgos, the birthplace of the Cid,Zamora and Valladolid,Toledo, built and walled amidThe wars of Wamba's time;
The long, straight line of the high-way,The distant town that seems so near,The peasants in the fields, that stayTheir toil to cross themselves and pray,When from the belfry at middayThe Angelus they hear;
White crosses in the mountain pass,Mules gay with tassels, the loud dinOf muleteers, the tethered assThat crops the dusty wayside grass,And cavaliers with spurs of brassAlighting at the inn;
White hamlets hidden in fields of wheat,White cities slumbering by the sea,White sunshine flooding square and street,Dark mountain-ranges, at whose feetThe river-beds are dry with heat,—All was a dream to me.
Yet something sombre and severeO'er the enchanted landscape reigned;A terror in the atmosphereAs if King Philip listened near,Or Torquemada, the austere,His ghostly sway maintained.
The softer Andalusian skiesDispelled the sadness and the gloom;There Cadiz by the seaside lies,And Seville's orange-orchards rise,Making the land a paradiseOf beauty and of bloom.
There Cordova is hidden amongThe palm, the olive, and the vine;Gem of the South, by poets sung,And in whose Mosque Ahmanzor hungAs lamps the bells that once had rungAt Compostella's shrine.
But over all the rest supreme,The star of stars, the cynosure,The artist's and the poet's theme,The young man's vision, the old man's dream,—Granada by its winding stream,The city of the Moor!
And there the Alhambra still recallsAladdin's palace of delight;Allah il Allah! through its hallsWhispers the fountain as it falls,The Darro darts beneath its walls,The hills with snow are white.
Ah yes, the hills are white with snow,And cold with blasts that bite and freeze;But in the happy vale belowThe orange and pomegranate grow,And wafts of air toss to and froThe blossoming almond-trees.
The Vega cleft by the Xenil,The fascination and allureOf the sweet landscape chains the will;The traveller lingers on the hill,His parted lips are breathing stillThe last sigh of the Moor.
How like a ruin overgrownWith flower's that hide the rents of time,Stands now the Past that I have known,Castles in Spain, not built of stoneBut of white summer clouds, and blownInto this little mist of rhyme!
VITTORIA COLONNA, on the death of her hushand, the Marchese di Pescara, retired to her castle at Ischia (Inarime), and there wrote the Ode upon his death, which gained her the title of Divine.
Once more, once more, Inarime,I see thy purple hills!—once moreI hear the billows of the bayWash the white pebbles on thy shore.
High o'er the sea-surge and the sands,Like a great galleon wrecked and castAshore by storms, thy castle stands,A mouldering landmark of the Past.
Upon its terrace-walk I seeA phantom gliding to and fro;It is Colonna,—it is sheWho lived and loved so long ago.
Pescara's beautiful young wife,The type of perfect womanhood,Whose life was love, the life of life,That time and change and death withstood.
For death, that breaks the marriage bandIn others, only closer pressedThe wedding-ring upon her handAnd closer locked and barred her breast.
She knew the life-long martyrdom,The weariness, the endless painOf waiting for some one to comeWho nevermore would come again.
The shadows of the chestnut-trees,The odor of the orange blooms,The song of birds, and, more than these,The silence of deserted rooms;
The respiration of the sea,The soft caresses of the air,All things in nature seemed to beBut ministers of her despair;
Till the o'erburdened heart, so longImprisoned in itself, found ventAnd voice in one impassioned songOf inconsolable lament.
Then as the sun, though hidden from sight,Transmutes to gold the leaden mist,Her life was interfused with light,From realms that, though unseen, exist,
Inarime! Inarime!Thy castle on the crags aboveIn dust shall crumble and decay,But not the memory of her love.
In that desolate land and lone,Where the Big Horn and YellowstoneRoar down their mountain path,By their fires the Sioux ChiefsMuttered their woes and griefsAnd the menace of their wrath.
"Revenge!" cried Rain-in-the-Face,"Revenue upon all the raceOf the White Chief with yellow hair!"And the mountains dark and highFrom their crags re-echoed the cryOf his anger and despair.
In the meadow, spreading wideBy woodland and riversideThe Indian village stood;All was silent as a dream,Save the rushing a of the streamAnd the blue-jay in the wood.
In his war paint and his beads,Like a bison among the reeds,In ambush the Sitting BullLay with three thousand bravesCrouched in the clefts and caves,Savage, unmerciful!
Into the fatal snareThe White Chief with yellow hairAnd his three hundred menDashed headlong, sword in hand;But of that gallant bandNot one returned again.
The sudden darkness of deathOverwhelmed them like the breathAnd smoke of a furnace fire:By the river's bank, and betweenThe rocks of the ravine,They lay in their bloody attire.
But the foemen fled in the night,And Rain-in-the-Face, in his flightUplifted high in airAs a ghastly trophy, boreThe brave heart, that beat no more,Of the White Chief with yellow hair.
Whose was the right and the wrong?Sing it, O funeral song,With a voice that is full of tears,And say that our broken faithWrought all this ruin and scathe,In the Year of a Hundred Years.
O lovely river of Yvette!O darling river! like a bride,Some dimpled, bashful, fair Lisette,Thou goest to wed the Orge's tide.
Maincourt, and lordly Dampierre,See and salute thee on thy way,And, with a blessing and a prayer,Ring the sweet bells of St. Forget.
The valley of Chevreuse in vainWould hold thee in its fond embrace;Thou glidest from its arms againAnd hurriest on with swifter pace.
Thou wilt not stay; with restless feetPursuing still thine onward flight,Thou goest as one in haste to meetHer sole desire, her head's delight.
O lovely river of Yvette!O darling stream! on balanced wingsThe wood-birds sang the chansonnetteThat here a wandering poet sings.
"Combien faudrait-il de peaux d'Espagne pour faire un gant de cette grandeur?" A play upon the words gant, a glove, and Gand, the French for Ghent.
On St. Baron's tower, commandingHalf of Flanders, his domain,Charles the Emperor once was standing,While beneath him on the landingStood Duke Alva and his train.
Like a print in books of fables,Or a model made for show,With its pointed roofs and gables,Dormer windows, scrolls and labels,Lay the city far below.
Through its squares and streets and alleysPoured the populace of Ghent;As a routed army rallies,Or as rivers run through valleys,Hurrying to their homes they went
"Nest of Lutheran misbelievers!"Cried Duke Alva as he gazed;"Haunt of traitors and deceivers,Stronghold of insurgent weavers,Let it to the ground be razed!"
On the Emperor's cap the featherNods, as laughing he replies:"How many skins of Spanish leather,Think you, would, if stitched togetherMake a glove of such a size?"
OCTOBER, 1746
MR. THOMAS PRINCE loquitur.
A fleet with flags arrayedSailed from the port of Brest,And the Admiral's ship displayedThe signal: "Steer southwest."For this Admiral D'AnvilleHad sworn by cross and crownTo ravage with fire and steelOur helpless Boston Town.
There were rumors in the street,In the houses there was fearOf the coming of the fleet,And the danger hovering near.And while from mouth to mouthSpread the tidings of dismay,I stood in the Old South,Saying humbly: "Let us pray!
"O Lord! we would not advise;But if in thy ProvidenceA tempest should ariseTo drive the French fleet hence,And scatter it far and wide,Or sink it in the sea,We should be satisfied,And thine the glory be."
This was the prayer I made,For my soul was all on flame,And even as I prayedThe answering tempest came;It came with a mighty power,Shaking the windows and walls,And tolling the bell in the tower,As it tolls at funerals.
The lightning suddenlyUnsheathed its flaming sword,And I cried: "Stand still, and seeThe salvation of the Lord!"The heavens were black with cloud,The sea was white with hail,And ever more fierce and loudBlew the October gale.
The fleet it overtook,And the broad sails in the vanLike the tents of Cushan shook,Or the curtains of Midian.Down on the reeling decksCrashed the o'erwhelming seas;Ah, never were there wrecksSo pitiful as these!
Like a potter's vessel brokeThe great ships of the line;They were carried away as a smoke,Or sank like lead in the brine.O Lord! before thy pathThey vanished and ceased to be,When thou didst walk in wrathWith thine horses through the sea!
Mounted on Kyrat strong and fleet,His chestnut steed with four white feet,Roushan Beg, called Kurroglou,Son of the road and bandit chief,Seeking refuge and relief,Up the mountain pathway flew.
Such was Kyrat's wondrous speed,Never yet could any steedReach the dust-cloud in his course.More than maiden, more than wife,More than gold and next to lifeRoushan the Robber loved his horse.
In the land that lies beyondErzeroum and Trebizond,Garden-girt his fortress stood;Plundered khan, or caravanJourneying north from Koordistan,Gave him wealth and wine and food.
Seven hundred and fourscoreMen at arms his livery wore,Did his bidding night and day.Now, through regions all unknown,He was wandering, lost, alone,Seeking without guide his way.
Suddenly the pathway ends,Sheer the precipice descends,Loud the torrent roars unseen;Thirty feet from side to sideYawns the chasm; on air must rideHe who crosses this ravine.
Following close in his pursuit,At the precipice's foot,Reyhan the Arab of OrfahHalted with his hundred men,Shouting upward from the glen,"La Illah illa Allah!"
Gently Roushan Beg caressedKyrat's forehead, neck, and breast;Kissed him upon both his eyes;Sang to him in his wild way,As upon the topmost spraySings a bird before it flies.
"O my Kyrat, O my steed,Round and slender as a reed,Carry me this peril through!Satin housings shall be thine,Shoes of gold, O Kyrat mine,O thou soul of Kurroglou!
"Soft thy skin as silken skein,Soft as woman's hair thy mane,Tender are thine eyes and true;All thy hoofs like ivory shine,Polished bright; O, life of mine,Leap, and rescue Kurroglou!"
Kyrat, then, the strong and fleet,Drew together his four white feet,Paused a moment on the verge,Measured with his eye the space,And into the air's embraceLeaped as leaps the ocean surge.
As the ocean surge o'er sandBears a swimmer safe to land,Kyrat safe his rider bore;Rattling down the deep abyssFragments of the precipiceRolled like pebbles on a shore.
Roushan's tasselled cap of redTrembled not upon his head,Careless sat he and upright;Neither hand nor bridle shook,Nor his head he turned to look,As he galloped out of sight.
Flash of harness in the air,Seen a moment like the glareOf a sword drawn from its sheath;Thus the phantom horseman passed,And the shadow that he castLeaped the cataract underneath.
Reyhan the Arab held his breathWhile this vision of life and deathPassed above him. "Allahu!"Cried he. "In all KoordistanLives there not so brave a manAs this Robber Kurroglou!"
One day, Haroun Al Raschid read A book wherein the poet said:—
"Where are the kings, and where the rest Of those who once the world possessed?
"They're gone with all their pomp and show, They're gone the way that thou shalt go.
"O thou who choosest for thy share The world, and what the world calls fair,
"Take all that it can give or lend, But know that death is at the end!"
Haroun Al Raschid bowed his head: Tears fell upon the page he read.
Viswamitra the Magician,By his spells and incantations,Up to Indra's realms elysianRaised Trisanku, king of nations.
Indra and the gods offendedHurled him downward, and descendingIn the air he hung suspended,With these equal powers contending.
Thus by aspirations lifted,By misgivings downward driven,Human hearts are tossed and driftedMidway between earth and heaven.
"Sir, I should build me a fortification, if Icame to live here." —BOSWELL'S Johnson.
On the green little isle of Inchkenneth,Who is it that walks by the shore,So gay with his Highland blue bonnet,So brave with his targe and claymore?
His form is the form of a giant,But his face wears an aspect of pain;Can this be the Laird of Inchkenneth?Can this be Sir Allan McLean?
Ah, no! It is only the Rambler,The Idler, who lives in Bolt Court,And who says, were he Laird of Inchkenneth,He would wall himself round with a fort.
Three Kings came riding from far away,Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar;Three Wise Men out of the East were they,And they travelled by night and they slept by day,For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.
The star was so beautiful, large, and clear,That all the other stars of the skyBecame a white mist in the atmosphere,And by this they knew that the coming was nearOf the Prince foretold in the prophecy.
Three caskets they bore on their saddle-bows,Three caskets of gold with golden keys;Their robes were of crimson silk with rowsOf bells and pomegranates and furbelows,Their turbans like blossoming almond-trees.
And so the Three Kings rode into the West,Through the dusk of night, over hill and dell,And sometimes they nodded with beard on breastAnd sometimes talked, as they paused to rest,With the people they met at some wayside well.
"Of the child that is born," said Baltasar,"Good people, I pray you, tell us the news;For we in the East have seen his star,And have ridden fast, and have ridden far,To find and worship the King of the Jews."
And the people answered, "You ask in vain;We know of no king but Herod the Great!"They thought the Wise Men were men insane,As they spurred their horses across the plain,Like riders in haste, and who cannot wait.
And when they came to Jerusalem,Herod the Great, who had heard this thing,Sent for the Wise Men and questioned them;And said, "Go down unto Bethlehem,And bring me tidings of this new king."
So they rode away; and the star stood still,The only one in the gray of mornYes, it stopped, it stood still of its own free will,Right over Bethlehem on the hill,The city of David where Christ was born.
And the Three Kings rode through the gate and the guard,Through the silent street, till their horses turnedAnd neighed as they entered the great inn-yard;But the windows were closed, and the doors were barred,And only a light in the stable burned.
And cradled there in the scented hay,In the air made sweet by the breath of kine,The little child in the manger lay,The child, that would be king one dayOf a kingdom not human but divine.
His mother Mary of NazarethSat watching beside his place of rest,Watching the even flow of his breath,For the joy of life and the terror of deathWere mingled together in her breast.
They laid their offerings at his feet:The gold was their tribute to a King,The frankincense, with its odor sweet,Was for the Priest, the Paraclete,The myrrh for the body's burying.
And the mother wondered and bowed her head,And sat as still as a statue of stone;Her heart was troubled yet comforted,Remembering what the Angel had saidOf an endless reign and of David's throne.
Then the Kings rode out of the city gate,With a clatter of hoofs in proud array;But they went not back to Herod the Great,For they knew his malice and feared his hate,And returned to their homes by another way.
Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;Home-keeping hearts are happiest,For those that wander they know not whereAre full of trouble and full of care;To stay at home is best.
Weary and homesick and distressed,They wander east, they wander west,And are baffled and beaten and blown aboutBy the winds of the wilderness of doubt;To stay at home is best.
Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;The bird is safest in its nest;O'er all that flutter their wings and flyA hawk is hovering in the sky;To stay at home is best.
The White Czar is Peter the Great. Batyushka, Father dear, and Gosudar, Sovereign, are titles the Russian people are fond of giving to the Czar in their popular songs.
Dost thou see on the rampart's heightThat wreath of mist, in the lightOf the midnight moon? O, hist!It is not a wreath of mist;It is the Czar, the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
He has heard, among the dead,The artillery roll o'erhead;The drums and the tramp of feetOf his soldiery in the street;He is awake! the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
He has heard in the grave the criesOf his people: "Awake! arise!"He has rent the gold brocadeWhereof his shroud was made;He is risen! the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
From the Volga and the DonHe has led his armies on,Over river and morass,Over desert and mountain pass;The Czar, the Orthodox Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
He looks from the mountain-chainToward the seas, that cleave in twainThe continents; his handPoints southward o'er the landOf Roumili! O Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
And the words break from his lips:"I am the builder of ships,And my ships shall sail these seasTo the Pillars of Hercules!I say it; the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
"The Bosphorus shall be free;It shall make room for me;And the gates of its water-streetsBe unbarred before my fleets.I say it; the White Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!
"And the Christian shall no moreBe crushed, as heretofore,Beneath thine iron rule,O Sultan of Istamboul!I swear it; I the Czar,Batyushka! Gosudar!"
Sweet as the tender fragrance that survives, When martyred flowers breathe out their little lives, Sweet as a song that once consoled our pain, But never will be sung to us again, Is thy remembrance. Now the hour of rest Hath come to thee. Sleep, darling; it is best.