Poems by William Dean Howells Part 4

Out of the sedge by the creek a flight of clamorous killdees Rose from their timorous sleep with piercing and iterant challenge, Wheeled in the starlight, and fled away into distance and silence.

White in the vale lay the tents, and beyond them glided the river, Where the broadhorn[1] drifted slow at the will of the current, And where the boatman listened, and knew not how, as he listened, Something touched through the years the old lost hopes of his childhood,-- Only his sense was filled with low, monotonous murmurs, As of a faint-heard prayer, that was chorused with deeper responses.

Not with the rest was lifted her voice in the fervent responses, But in her soul she prayed to Him that heareth in secret, Asking for light and for strength to learn his will and to do it: "O, make me clear to know if the hope that rises within me Be not part of a love unmeet for me here, and forbidden!

So, if it be not that, make me strong for the evil entreaty Of the days that shall bring me question of self and reproaches, When the unrighteous shall mock, and my brethren and sisters shall doubt me!

Make me worthy to know thy will, my Savior, and do it!"

In her pain she prayed, and at last, through her mute adoration, Rapt from all mortal presence, and in her rapture uplifted, Glorified she rose, and stood in the midst of the people, Looking on all with the still, unseeing eyes of devotion,-- Vague, and tender, and sweet, as the eyes of the dead, when we dream them Living and looking on us, but they cannot speak, and we cannot,-- Knowing only the peril that threatened his soul's unrepentance, Knowing only the fear and error and wrong that withheld him, Thinking, "In doubt of me, his soul had perished forever!"

Touched with no feeble shame, but trusting her power to save him, Through the circle she pa.s.sed, and straight to the side of her lover, Took his hand in her own, and mutely implored him an instant, Answering, giving, forgiving, confessing, beseeching him all things; Drew him then with her, and pa.s.sed once more through the circle Unto her place, and knelt with him there by the side of her father, Trembling as women tremble who greatly venture and triumph,-- But in her innocent breast was the saint's sublime exultation.

So was Louis converted; and though the lips of the scorners Spared not in after years the subtle taunt and derision (What time, meeker grown, his heart held his hand from its answer), Not the less lofty and pure her love and her faith that had saved him, Not the less now discerned was her inspiration from heaven By the people, that rose, and embracing and weeping together, Poured forth their jubilant songs of victory and of thanksgiving, Till from the embers leaped the dying flame to behold them, And the hills of the river were filled with reverberant echoes,-- Echoes that out of the years and the distance stole to me hither, While I moved unwilled in the mellow warmth of the weather; Echoes that mingled and fainted and fell with the fluttering murmurs In the hearts of the hus.h.i.+ng bells, as from island to island Swooned the sound on the wide lagoons into palpitant silence.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The old-fas.h.i.+oned flatboats were so called.

CAPRICE.

I.

She hung the cage at the window: "If he goes by," she said, "He will hear my robin singing, And when he lifts his head, I shall be sitting here to sew, And he will bow to me, I know."

The robin sang a love-sweet song, The young man raised his head; The maiden turned away and blushed: "I am a fool!" she said, And went on broidering in silk A pink-eyed rabbit, white as milk.

II.

The young man loitered slowly By the house three times that day; She took her bird from the window: "He need not look this way."

She sat at her piano long, And sighed, and played a death-sad song.

But when the day was done, she said, "I wish that he would come!

Remember, Mary, if he calls To-night--I'm not at home."

So when he rang, she went--the elf!-- She went and let him in herself.

III.

They sang full long together Their songs love-sweet, death-sad; The robin woke from his slumber, And rang out, clear and glad.

"Now go!" she coldly said; "'tis late;"

And followed him--to latch the gate.

He took the rosebud from her hair, While, "You shall not!" she said; He closed her hand within his own, And, while her tongue forbade, Her will was darkened in the eclipse Of blinding love upon his lips.

SWEET CLOVER.

"... My letters back to me."

I.

I know they won the faint perfume, That to their faded pages clings, From gloves, and handkerchiefs, and things Kept in the soft and scented gloom

Of some mysterious box--poor leaves Of summer, now as sere and dead As any leaves of summer shed From crimson boughs when autumn grieves!

The ghost of fragrance! Yet I thrill All through with such delicious pain Of soul and sense, to breathe again The sweet that haunted memory still.

And under these December skies, As bland as May's in other climes, I move, and muse my idle rhymes And subtly sentimentalize.

I hear the music that was played,-- The songs that silence knows by heart!-- I see sweet burlesque feigning art, The careless grace that curved and swayed

Through dances and through breezy walks; I feel once more the eyes that smiled, And that dear presence that beguiled The pauses of the foolish talks,

When this poor phantom of perfume Was the Sweet Clover's living soul, And breathed from her as if it stole, Ah, heaven! from her heart in bloom!

II.

We have not many ways with pain: We weep weak tears, or else we laugh; I doubt, not less the cup we quaff, And tears and scorn alike are vain.

But let me live my quiet life; I will not vex my calm with grief, I only know the pang was brief, And there an end of hope and strife.

And thou? I put the letters by: In years the sweetness shall not pa.s.s; More than the perfect blossom was I count its lingering memory.

Alas! with Time dear Love is dead, And not with Fate. And who can guess How weary of our happiness We might have been if we were wed?

Venice.

THE ROYAL PORTRAITS.

(AT LUDWIGSHOF.)

I.

Confronting each other the pictures stare Into each other's sleepless eyes; And the daylight into the darkness dies, From year to year in the palace there: But they watch and guard that no device Take either one of them unaware.

Their majesties the king and the queen, The parents of the reigning prince: Both put off royalty many years since, With life and the gifts that have always been Given to kings from G.o.d, to evince His sense of the mighty over the mean.

I cannot say that I like the face Of the king; it is something fat and red; And the neck that lifts the royal head Is thick and coa.r.s.e; and a scanty grace Dwells in the dull blue eyes that are laid Sullenly on the queen in her place.

He must have been a king in his day 'Twere well to pleasure in work and sport: One of the heaven-anointed sort Who ruled his people with iron sway, And knew that, through good and evil report, G.o.d meant him to rule and them to obey.

There are many other likenesses Of the king in his royal palace there; You find him depicted everywhere,-- In his robes of state, in his hunting-dress, In his flowing wig, in his powdered hair,-- A king in all of them, none the less;