Undertones Part 1

Undertones.

by Madison J. Cawein.

THE DREAMER

Even as a child he loved to thrid the bowers, And mark the loafing sunlight's lazy laugh; Or, on each season, spell the epitaph Of its dead months repeated in their flowers; Or list the music of the strolling showers, Whose vagabond notes strummed through a twinkling staff; Or read the day's delivered monograph Through all the chapters of its daedal hours.

Still with the same child-faith and child-regard He looks on Nature, hearing, at her heart, The beautiful beat out the time and place, Whereby no lesson of this life is hard, No struggle vain of science or of art, That dies with failure written on its face.

QUIET

A log-hut in the solitude, A clapboard roof to rest beneath!

This side, the shadow-haunted wood; That side, the sunlight-haunted heath.

At daybreak Morn shall come to me In raiment of the white winds spun; Slim in her rosy hand the key That opes the gateway of the sun.

Her smile shall help my heart enough With love to labor all the day, And cheer the road, whose rocks are rough, With her smooth footprints, each a ray.

At dusk a voice shall call afar, A lone voice like the whippoorwill's; And, on her s.h.i.+mmering brow one star, Night shall descend the western hills.

She at my door till dawn shall stand, With Gothic eyes, that, dark and deep, Are mirrors of a mystic land, Fantastic with the towns of sleep.

UNQUALIFIED

Not his the part to win the goal, The flaming goal that flies before, Into whose course the apples roll Of self that stay his feet the more.

Beyond himself he shall not win Whose flesh is as a driven dust, That his own soul must wander in, Seeing no farther than his l.u.s.t.

UNENCOURAGED ASPIRATION

Is mine the part of no companion hand Of help, except my shadow's silent self?

A moonlight traveller in Fancy's land Of leering gnome and hollow-laughing elf;

Whose forests deepen and whose moon goes down, When Night's blind shadow shall usurp my own; And, mid the dust and wreck of some old town, The City of Dreams, I grope and fall alone.

THE WOOD

Witch-hazel, dogwood, and the maple here; And there the oak and hickory; Linn, poplar, and the beech-tree, far and near As the eased eye can see.

Wild-ginger; wahoo, with its wan balloons; And brakes of briers of a twilight green; And fox-grapes plumed with summer; and strung moons Of mandrake flowers between.

Deep gold-green ferns, and mosses red and gray,-- Mats for what naked myth's white feet?-- And, cool and calm, a cascade far away With even-falling beat.

Old logs, made sweet with death; rough bits of bark; And tangled twig and knotted root; And suns.h.i.+ne splashes and great pools of dark; And many a wild-bird's flute.

Here let me sit until the Indian, Dusk, With copper-colored feet, comes down; Sowing the wildwood with star-fire and musk, And shadows blue and brown.

Then side by side with some magician dream, To take the owlet-haunted lane, Half-roofed with vines; led by a firefly gleam, That brings me home again.

WOOD NOTES

I.

There is a flute that follows me From tree to tree: A water flute a spirit sets To silver lips in waterfalls, And through the breath of violets A sparkling music calls: "Hither! halloo! Oh, follow!

Down leafy hill and hollow, Where, through clear swirls, With feet like pearls, Wade up the blue-eyed country girls.

Hither! halloo! Oh, follow!"

II.

There is a pipe that plays to me From tree to tree: A bramble pipe an elfin holds To golden lips in berry brakes, And, swinging o'er the elder wolds, A flickering music makes: "Come over! Come over The new-mown clover!

Come over the new-mown hay!

Where, there by the berries, With cheeks like cherries, And locks with which the warm wind merries, Brown girls are hilling the hay, All day!

Come over the fields and away!

Come over! Come over!"

SUCCESS

How some succeed who have least need, In that they make no effort for!

And pluck, where others pluck a weed, The burning blossom of a star, Grown from no earthly seed.

For some shall reap that never sow; And some shall toil and not attain,-- What boots it in ourselves to know Such labor here is not in vain, When we still see it so!