Songs Of The Road Part 6

[84] 6 He strews the microbes in the lung, The blood-clot in the brain; With test and test He picks the best, Then tests them once again.

7 He tests the body and the mind, He rings them o'er and o'er; And if they crack, He throws them back, And fas.h.i.+ons them once more.

8 He chokes the infant throat with slime, He sets the ferment free; He builds the tiny tube of lime That blocks the artery.

[85] 9 He lets the youthful dreamer store Great projects in his brain, Until He drops the fungus spore That smears them out again.

10 He stores the milk that feeds the babe, He dulls the tortured nerve; He gives a hundred joys of sense Where few or none might serve.

11 And still He trains the branch of good Where the high blossoms be, And wieldeth still the shears of ill To prune and prime His tree.

MAN'S LIMITATION [86]

Man says that He is jealous, Man says that He is wise, Man says that He is watching From His throne beyond the skies.

But perchance the arch above us Is one great mirror's span, And the Figure seen so dimly Is a vast reflected man.

If it is love that gave us A thousand blossoms bright, Why should that love not save us From poisoned aconite?

[87] If this man blesses suns.h.i.+ne Which sets his fields aglow, Shall that man curse the tempest That lays his harvest low?

If you may sing His praises For health He gave to you, What of this spine-curved cripple, Shall he sing praises too?

If you may justly thank Him For strength in mind and limb, Then what of yonder weakling — Must he give thanks to Him?

Ah dark, too dark, the riddle!

The tiny brain too small!

We call, and fondly listen, For answer to that call.

[88] There comes no word to tell us Why this and that should be, Why you should live with sorrow, And joy should live with me.

MIND AND MATTER [89]

Great was his soul and high his aim, He viewed the world, and he could trace A lofty plan to leave his name Immortal 'mid the human race.

But as he planned, and as he worked, The fungus spore within him lurked.

Though dark the present and the past, The future seemed a sunlit thing.

Still ever deeper and more vast, The changes that he hoped to bring.

His was the will to dare and do; But still the stealthy fungus grew.

[90] Alas the plans that came to nought!

Alas the soul that thrilled in vain!

The sunlit future that he sought Was but a mirage of the brain.

Where now the wit? Where now the will?

The fungus is the master still.

DARKNESS [91]

A gentleman of wit and charm, A kindly heart, a cleanly mind, One who was quick with hand or purse, To lift the burden of his kind.

A brain well balanced and mature, A soul that shrank from all things base, So rode he forth that winter day, Complete in every mortal grace.

And then the blunder of a horse, The crash upon the frozen clods, And Death? Ah! no such dignity, But Life, all twisted and at odds!

[92] At odds in body and in soul, Degraded to some brutish state, A being loathsome and malign, Debased, obscene, degenerate.

Pathology? The case is clear, The diagnosis is exact; A bone depressed, a haemorrhage, The pressure on a nervous tract.

Theology? Ah, there's the rub!

Since brain and soul together fade, Then when the brain is dead enough!

Lord help us, for we need Thine aid!

III MISCELLANEOUS VERSES [93]

A WOMAN'S LOVE [95]

I am not blind I understand; I see him loyal, good, and wise, I feel decision in his hand, I read his honour in his eyes.

Manliest among men is he With every gift and grace to clothe him; He never loved a girl but me — And I I loathe him! loathe him!

The other! Ah! I value him Precisely at his proper rate, A creature of caprice and whim, Unstable, weak, importunate.

[96] His thoughts are set on paltry gain — You only tell me what I see — I know him selfish, cold and vain; But, oh! he's all the world to me!

BY THE NORTH SEA [97]

Her cheek was wet with North Sea spray, We walked where tide and s.h.i.+ngle meet; The long waves rolled from far away To purr in ripples at our feet.

And as we walked it seemed to me That three old friends had met that day, The old, old sky, the old, old sea, And love, which is as old as they.

Out seaward hung the brooding mist We saw it rolling, fold on fold, [98] And marked the great Sun alchemist Turn all its leaden edge to gold, Look well, look well, oh lady mine, The gray below, the gold above, For so the grayest life may s.h.i.+ne All golden in the light of love.

DECEMBER'S SNOW [99]