Poets of the South Part 19

Worn Dante,[21] I forgive The implacable hates that in thy horrid h.e.l.ls Or burn or freeze thy fellows, never loosed By death, nor time, nor love.

And I forgive Thee, Milton, those thy comic-dreadful wars [22]

Where, armed with gross and inconclusive steel, Immortals smite immortals mortalwise, And fill all heaven with folly.

Also thee, Brave Aeschylus,[23] thee I forgive, for that Thine eye, by bare bright justice basilisked, Turned not, nor ever learned to look where Love Stands s.h.i.+ning.

So, unto thee, Lucretius [24] mine, (For oh, what heart hath loved thee like to this That's now complaining?) freely I forgive Thy logic poor, thine error rich, thine earth Whose graves eat souls and all.

Yea, all you hearts Of beauty, and sweet righteous lovers large: Aurelius [25] fine, oft superfine; mild Saint A Kempis,[26] overmild; Epictetus,[27]

Whiles low in thought, still with old slavery tinct; Rapt Behmen,[28] rapt too far; high Swedenborg,[29]

O'ertoppling; Langley,[30] that with but a touch Of art hadst sung Piers Plowman to the top Of English songs, whereof 'tis dearest, now, And most adorable; Caedmon,[31] in the morn A-calling angels with the cowherd's call That late brought up the cattle; Emerson, Most wise, that yet, in finding Wisdom, lost Thy Self, sometimes; tense Keats, with angels' nerves Where men's were better; Tennyson, largest voice Since Milton, yet some register of wit Wanting,--all, all, I pardon, ere 'tis asked, Your more or less, your little mole that marks Your brother and your kins.h.i.+p seals to man.

But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time, But Thee, O poets' Poet, Wisdom's Tongue, But Thee, O man's best Man, O love's best Love, O perfect life in perfect labor writ, O all men's Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest,-- What _if_ or _yet_, what mole, what flaw, what lapse, What least defect or shadow of defect, What rumor, tattled by an enemy, Of inference loose, what lack of grace Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's,-- Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee, Jesus, good Paragon, thou Crystal Christ?[32]

SUNRISE [33]

In my sleep I was fain of their fellows.h.i.+p, fain Of the live-oak, the marsh, and the main.

The little green leaves would not let me alone in my sleep; Up breathed from the marshes, a message of range and of sweep, Interwoven with waftures of wild sea-liberties, drifting, Came through the lapped leaves sifting, sifting, Came to the gates of sleep.

Then my thoughts, in the dark of the dungeon-keep Of the Castle of Captives hid in the City of Sleep, Upstarted, by twos and by threes a.s.sembling: The gates of sleep fell a-trembling Like as the lips of a lady that forth falter _yes_, Shaken with happiness: The gates of sleep stood wide.

I have waked, I have come, my beloved! I might not abide: I have come ere the dawn, O beloved, my live-oaks, to hide In your gospeling glooms,[34]--to be As a lover in heaven, the marsh my marsh and the sea my sea.

Tell me, sweet burly-barked, man-bodied Tree That mine arms in the dark are embracing, dost know From what fount are these tears at thy feet which flow?

They rise not from reason, but deeper inconsequent deeps.

Reason's not one that weeps.

What logic of greeting lies Betwixt dear over-beautiful trees and the rain of the eyes?

O cunning green leaves, little masters! like as ye gloss All the dull-tissued dark with your luminous darks that emboss.

The vague blackness of night into pattern and plan, So, (But would I could know, but would I could know,) With your question embroid'ring the dark of the question of man,-- So, with your silences purfling this silence of man While his cry to the dead for some knowledge is under the ban, Under the ban,-- So, ye have wrought me Designs on the night of our knowledge,--yea, ye have taught me, So, That haply we know somewhat more than we know.

Ye lispers, whisperers, singers in storms, Ye consciences murmuring faiths under forms, Ye ministers meet for each pa.s.sion that grieves, Friendly, sisterly, sweetheart leaves,[35]

Oh, rain me down from your darks that contain me Wisdoms ye winnow from winds that pain me,-- Sift down tremors of sweet-within-sweet That advise me of more than they bring,--repeat Me the woods-smell that swiftly but now brought breath From the heaven-side bank of the river of death,-- Teach me the terms of silence,--preach me The pa.s.sion of patience,--sift me,--impeach me,-- And there, oh there As ye hang with your myriad palms upturned in the air, Pray me a myriad prayer.[36]

My gossip, the owl,--is it thou That out of the leaves of the low-hanging bough, As I pa.s.s to the beach, art stirred?

Dumb woods, have ye uttered a bird?

Reverend Marsh, low-couched along the sea, Old chemist, rapt in alchemy, Distilling silence,--lo, That which our father-age had died to know-- The menstruum that dissolves all matter--thou Hast found it: for this silence, filling now The globed clarity of receiving s.p.a.ce, This solves us all: man, matter, doubt, disgrace, Death, love, sin, sanity, Must in yon silence' clear solution lie.

Too clear! That crystal nothing who'll peruse?

The blackest night could bring us brighter news.

Yet precious qualities of silence haunt Round these vast margins, ministrant.

Oh, if thy soul's at latter gasp for s.p.a.ce, With trying to breathe no bigger than thy race Just to be fellowed, when that thou hast found No man with room, or grace enough of bound To entertain that New thou tell'st, thou art,-- 'Tis here, 'tis here, thou canst unhand thy heart And breathe it free, and breathe it free, By rangy marsh, in lone sea-liberty.

The tide's at full: the marsh with flooded streams Glimmers, a limpid labyrinth of dreams.

Each winding creek in grave entrancement lies A rhapsody of morning-stars. The skies s.h.i.+ne scant with one forked galaxy,-- The marsh brags ten: looped on his breast they lie.

Oh, what if a sound should be made!

Oh, what if a bound should be laid To this bow-and-string tension of beauty and silence a-spring,-- To the bend of beauty the bow, or the hold of silence the string!

I fear me, I fear me yon dome of diaphanous gleam Will break as a bubble o'erblown in a dream,-- Yon dome of too-tenuous tissues of s.p.a.ce and of night, Overweighted with stars, overfreighted with light, Oversated with beauty and silence, will seem But a bubble that broke in a dream, If a bound of degree to this grace be laid, Or a sound or a motion made.

But no: it is made: list! somewhere,--mystery, where?

In the leaves? in the air?

In my heart? is a motion made: 'Tis a motion of dawn, like a nicker of shade on shade.

In the leaves 'tis palpable: low mult.i.tudinous stirring Upwinds through the woods; the little ones, softly conferring, Have settled my lord's to be looked for; so; they are still; But the air and my heart and the earth are a-thrill,-- And look where the wild duck sails round the bend of the river,-- And look where a pa.s.sionate s.h.i.+ver Expectant is bending the blades Of the marsh-gra.s.s in serial s.h.i.+mmers and shades,-- And invisible wings, fast fleeting, fast fleeting, Are beating The dark overhead as my heart beats,--and steady and free Is the ebb-tide flowing from marsh to sea-- (Run home, little streams, With your lapfuls of stars and dreams),-- And a sailor unseen is hoisting a-peak, For list, down the insh.o.r.e curve of the creek How merrily flutters the sail,-- And lo, in the East! Will the East unveil?

The East is unveiled, the East hath confessed A flush: 'tis dead; 'tis alive; 'tis dead, ere the West Was aware of it: nay, 'tis abiding, 'tis withdrawn: Have a care, sweet Heaven! 'Tis Dawn.

Now a dream of a flame through that dream of a flush is uprolled: To the zenith ascending, a dome of undazzling gold Is builded, in shape as a beehive, from out of the sea: The hive is of gold undazzling, but oh, the Bee, The star-fed Bee, the build-fire Bee, Of dazzling gold is the great Sun-Bee That shall flash from the hive-hole over the sea.[37]

Yet now the dewdrop, now the morning gray, Shall live their little lucid sober day Ere with the sun their souls exhale away.

Now in each pettiest personal sphere of dew The summ'd morn s.h.i.+nes complete as in the blue Big dewdrop of all heaven: with these lit shrines O'er-silvered to the farthest sea-confines, The sacramental marsh one pious plain Of wors.h.i.+p lies. Peace to the ante-reign Of Mary Morning, blissful mother mild, Minded of nought but peace, and of a child.

Not slower than Majesty moves, for a mean and a measure Of motion,--not faster than dateless Olympian leisure [38]

Might pace with unblown ample garments from pleasure to pleasure,-- The wave-serrate sea-rim sinks unjarring, unreeling, Forever revealing, revealing, revealing, Edgewise, bladewise, halfwise, wholewise,--'tis done!

Good-morrow, lord Sun!

With several voice, with ascription one, The woods and the marsh and the sea and my soul Unto thee, whence the glittering stream of all morrows doth roll, Cry good and past-good and most heavenly morrow, lord Sun.

O Artisan born in the purple,--Workman Heat,-- Parter of pa.s.sionate atoms that travail to meet And be mixed in the death-cold oneness,--innermost Guest At the marriage of elements,--fellow of publicans,--blest King in the blouse of flame, that loiterest o'er The idle skies, yet laborest fast evermore,-- Thou in the fine forge-thunder, thou, in the beat Of the heart of a man, thou Motive,--Laborer Heat: Yea, Artist, thou, of whose art yon sea's all news, With his insh.o.r.e greens and manifold mid-sea blues, Pearl-glint, sh.e.l.l-tint, ancientest perfectest hues, Ever shaming the maidens,--lily and rose Confess thee, and each mild flame that glows In the clarified virginal bosoms of stones that s.h.i.+ne, It is thine, it is thine:

Thou chemist of storms, whether driving the winds a-swirl Or a-flicker the subtiler essences polar that whirl In the magnet earth,--yea, thou with a storm for a heart, Rent with debate, many-spotted with question, part From part oft sundered, yet ever a globed light, Yet ever the artist, ever more large and bright Than the eye of a man may avail of:--manifold One, I must pa.s.s from thy face, I must pa.s.s from the face of the Sun:

Old Want is awake and agog, every wrinkle a-frown; The worker must pa.s.s to his work in the terrible town: But I fear not, nay, and I fear not the thing to be done; I am strong with the strength of my lord the Sun: How dark, how dark soever the race that must needs be run, I am lit with the Sun.

Oh, never the mast-high run of the seas Of traffic shall hide thee, Never the h.e.l.l-colored smoke of the factories Hide thee, Never the reek of the time's fen-politics Hide thee, And ever my heart through the night shall with knowledge abide thee, And ever by day shall my spirit, as one that hath tried thee, Labor, at leisure, in art,--till yonder beside thee My soul shall float, friend Sun, The day being done.

For a general introduction to Lanier's poetry, see Chapter V.

[Footnote 1: This poem was first published in _Scott's Magazine_, Atlanta, Georgia, from which it is here taken. It at once became popular, and was copied in many newspapers throughout the South. It was subsequently revised, and the changes, which are pointed out below, are interesting as showing the development of the poet's artistic sense.

The singularly rapid and musical lilt of this poem may be readily traced to its sources. It is due to the skillful use of short vowels, liquid consonants, internal rhyme, and constant alliteration. These are matters of technique which Lanier studiously employed throughout his poetry.

This poem abounds in seeming irregularities of meter. The fundamental measure is iambic tetrameter, as in the line--

"The rushes cried, _Abide, abide_";

but trochees, dactyls, or anapests are introduced in almost every line, yet without interfering with the time element of the verse. These irregularities were no doubt introduced in order to increase the musical effects.]

[Footnote 2: As may be seen by reference to a map, the Chattahoochee rises in Habersham County, in northeastern Georgia, and in its south- westerly course pa.s.ses through the adjoining county of Hall. Its entire length is about five hundred miles.]

[Footnote 3: Changed in the revision to "I hurry amain," with the present tense of the following verbs. The p.r.o.noun "his" in line 6 becomes "my."]

[Footnote 4: This line was changed to--

"The laving laurel turned my tide."]

[Footnote 5: In this line the use of a needless antiquated form may be fairly questioned. In the revised form "win" is changed to "work."]

[Footnote 6: "Barred" is changed to "did bar" in the revision--a doubtful gain.]

[Footnote 7: The preceding four lines show a decided poetic gain in the revised form:--