Selections from American poetry Part 32

Thet night, I tell ye, she looked some!

She seemed to 've gut a new soul, For she felt sartin-sure he'd come, Down to her very shoe-sole.

She heered a foot, an' knowed it tu; A-raspin' on the sc.r.a.per,-- All ways to once her feelin's flew Like sparks in burnt-up paper.

He kin' o' l'itered on the mat, Some doubtfle o' the sekle, His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity Zekle.

An' yit she gin her cheer a jerk Ez though she wished him furder, An' on her apples kep' to work, Parin' away like murder.

"you want to see my Pa, I s'pose?"

"Wal...no...I come dasignin'"-- "To see my Ma? She's sprinklin' clo'es Agin to-morrer's i'nin'."

To say why gals acts so or so, Or don't, 'ould be presumin'; Mebby to mean yes an' say no Comes nateral to women.

He stood a spell on one foot fust, Then stood a spell on t'other, An' on which one he felt the wust He couldn't ha' told ye nuther.

Says he, "I'd better call agin;"

Says she, "Think likely, Mister;"

Thet last word p.r.i.c.ked him like a pin, An'... Wal, he up an' kist her.

When Ma bimeby upon 'em slips, Huldy sot pale ez ashes, All kin' o' smily roun' the lips An' teary roun' the lashes.

For she was jes' the quiet kind Whose naturs never vary, Like streams that keep a summer mind Snowhid in Jenooary.

The blood clost roun' her heart felt glued Too tight for all expressin', Tell mother see how metters stood, And gin 'em both her blessin'.

Then her red come back like the tide Down to the Bay o' Fundy, An' all I know is they was cried In meetin' come nex' Sunday.

III. SUNTHIN' IN THE PASTORAL LINE

Once git a smell o' musk into a draw, An' it clings hold like precerdents in law; Your gra'ma'am put it there,--when, goodness knows,-- To jes this--worldify her Sunday-clo'es; But the old chist wun't sarve her gran'son's wife, (For, 'thout new funnitoor, wut good in life?) An' so ole clawfoot, from the precinks dread O' the spare chamber, slinks into the shed, Where, dim with dust, it fust or last subsides To holdin' seeds an' fifty things besides; But better days stick fast in heart an' husk, An' all you keep in't gits a scent o' musk.

Jes' so with poets: wut they've airly read Git,s kind o' worked into their heart-an' head, So 's 't they can't seem to write but jest on sheers With furrin countries or played-out ideers, Nor hev a feelin', ef it doosn't smack O' wut some critter chose to feel 'way back.

This makes 'em talk o' daisies, larks, an' things, Ez though we'd nothin' here that blows an' sings,-- (Why, I'd give more for one live bobolink Than a square mile o' larks in printer's ink,) This makes 'em think our fust o' May is May, Which 't ain't, for all the almanicks can say.

O little city-gals, don't never go it Blind on the word o' noospaper or poet!

They're apt to puff, an' May-day seldom looks Up in the country, ez it dons in books They're no more like than hornets'-nests an' hives, Or printed sarmons be to holy lives.

I, with my trouses perched on cow-hide boots, Tuggin' my foundered feet out by the roots, Hev seen ye come to fling on April's hea.r.s.e Your muslin nosegays from the milliner's, Puzzlin' to find dry ground your queen to choose, An' dance your throats sore m morocker shoes I've seen ye an' felt proud, thet, come wut would, Our Pilgrim stock wuz pithed with hardihood.

Pleasure doos make us Yankees kind o' winch, Ez though 'twuz sunthin' paid for by the inch; But yit we du contrive to worry thru, Ef Dooty tells us thet the thing's to du, An' kerry a hollerday, ef we set out, Ez stidchly ez though 'twaz a redoubt.

I, country-born an' bred, know where to find Some blooms thet make the season suit the mind, An' seem to metch the doubtin' bluebird's notes,-- Half-vent'rin' liverworts in furry coats, Bloodroots, whose rolled-up leaves ef you oncurl, Each on 'em 's cradle to a baby-pearl,-- But these are jes' Spring's pickets; sure ez sin, The rebble frosts'll try to drive 'em in; For half our May's so awfully like Mayn't, 'Twould rile a Shaker or an evrige saint; Though I own up I like our back'ard springs Thet kind o' haggle with their greens an' things, An' when you most give up, 'ithout more words Toss the fields full o' blossoms, leaves, an' birds Thet's Northun natur', slow an' apt to doubt, But when it doos git stirred, ther' 's no gin-out!

Fust come the blackbirds clatt'rin' in tall trees, An' settlin' things in windy Congresses,-- Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned Ef all on 'em don't head against the wind.

'Fore long the trees begin to show belief, The maple crimsons to a coral-reef, Then saffern swarms swing off from' all the willers So plump they look like yaller caterpillars, Then gray hossches'nuts leetle hands unfold Softer'n a baby's be at three days old Thet's robin-redbreast's almanick; he knows Thet arter this ther' 's only blossom-snows So, choosin' out a handy crotch an' spouse, He goes to plast'rin' his adobe house.

Then seems to come a hitch,--things lag behind, Till some fine mornin' Spring makes up her mind, An' ez, when snow-swelled avers cresh their dams Heaped-up with ice thet dovetails in an' jams, A leak comes spirtin thru some pin-hole cleft, Grows stronger, fercer, tears out right an' left, Then all the waters bow themselves an' come Suddin, in one gret slope o' shedderin' foam, Jes' so our Spring gits everythin' in tune An gives one leap from April into June Then all comes crowdin' in; afore you think, Young oak-leaves mist the side-hill woods with pink The catbird in the laylock-bush is loud; The orchards turn to heaps o' rosy cloud; Red-cedars blossom tu, though few folks know it, An' look all dipt in suns.h.i.+ne like a poet; The lime-trees pile their solid stacks o' shade An' drows'ly simmer with the bees' sweet trade; In ellum-shrouds the flas.h.i.+n' hangbird clings An' for the summer vy'ge his hammock slings; All down the loose-walled lanes in archin' bowers The barb'ry droops its strings o' golden flowers, Whose shrinkin' hearts the school-gals love to try With pins--they'll worry yourn so, boys, bimeby!

But I don't love your cat'logue style,--do you?-- Ez ef to sell off Natur' b y vendoo; One word with blood in 't 's twice ez good ez two: 'Nuff sed, June's bridesman, poet o' the year, Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here; Half-hid in tip-top apple-blooms he swings, Or climbs aginst the breeze with quiverin' wings, Or, givin' way to't in a mock despair, Runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air.

I ollus feels the sap start in my veins In Spring, with curus heats an' p.r.i.c.kly pains, Thet drive me, when I git a chance, to walk Off by myself to hev a privit talk With a queer critter thet can't seem to 'gree Along o' me like most folks,--Mister Me.

Ther' 's times when I'm unsoshle ez a stone An' sort o' suffocate to be alone,-- I'm crowded jes' to think thet folks are nigh, An' can't bear nothin' closer than the sky; Now the wind's full ez s.h.i.+fty in the mind Ez wut it is ou'-doors, ef I ain't blind, An' sometimes, in the fairest sou'west weather, My innard vane pints east for weeks together, My natur' gits all goose-flesh, an' my sins Come drizzlin' on my conscience sharp ez pins: Wal, et sech times I jes' slip out o' sight An' take it out in a fair stan'-up fight With the one cuss I can't lay on the shelf, The crook'dest stick in all the heap,--Myself.

'Twuz so las' Sabbath arter meetin'-time: F'indin' my feelin's wouldn't noways rhyme With n.o.body's, but off the hendle flew An' took things from an east-wind pint o' view, I started off to lose me in the hills Where the pines be, up back o' Siah's Mills: Pines, ef you're blue, are the best friends I know, They mope an' sigh an' sheer your feelin's so,-- They hesh the ground beneath so, tu, I swan, You half-forgit you've gut a body on.

"Ther' 's a small school'us' there where four road, meet, The door-steps hollered out by little feet, An side-posts carved with names whose owners grew To gret men, some on 'em an' deacons, tu; 'Tain't used no longer, coz the town hez gut A high-school, where they teach the Lord knows wut: Three-story larnin' 's poplar now: I guess We thriv' ez wal on jes' two stories less, For it strikes me ther' 's sech a thing ez sinnin'

By overloadin' children's underpinnin: Wal, here it wuz I larned my A B C, An' it's a kind o' favorite spot with me.

We're curus critters: Now ain't jes' the minute Thet ever fits us easy while we're in it; Long ez 'twuz futur', 'twould be perfect bliss,-- Soon ez it's past, thet time's wuth ten o' this An' yit there ain't a man thet need be told Thet Now's the only bird lays eggs o' gold.

A knee-high lad, I used to plot an' plan An' think 'twuz life's cap-sheaf to be a man; Now, gittin' gray, there's nothin' I enjoy Like dreamin' back along into a boy: So the ole school'us' is a place I choose Afore all others, ef I want to muse; I set down where I used to set, an' git Diy boyhood back, an' better things with it,-- Faith, Hope, an' sunthin' ef it isn't Cherrity, It's want o' guile, an' thet's ez gret a rerrity.

Now, 'fore I knowed, thet Sabbath arternoon Thet I sot out to tramp myself in tune, I found me in the school'us' on my seat, Drummin' the march to No-wheres with my feet.

Thinkin' o' nothin', I've heerd ole folks say, Is a hard kind o' dooty in its way: It's thinkin' everythin' you ever knew, Or ever hearn, to make your feelin's blue.

From this to thet I let my worryin' creep Till finally I must ha' fell asleep.

Our lives in sleep are some like streams thet glide Twixt flesh an' sperrit boundin' on each side, Where both sh.o.r.es' shadders kind o' mix an' mingle In sunthin' thet ain't jes' like either single; An' when you cast off moorin's from To-day, An' down towards To-morrer drift away, The imiges thet tengle on the stream Make a new upside-down'ard world o' dream: Sometimes they seem like sunrise-streaks an' warnin's O' wut'll be in Heaven on Sabbath-mornin's, An', mixed right in ez ef jest out o' spite, Sunthin' thet says your supper ain't gone right.

I'm gret on dreams: an' often, when I wake, I've lived so much it makes my mem'ry ache, An' can't skurce take a cat-nap in my cheer 'Thout hevin' 'em, some good, some bad, all queer.

Now I wuz settin' where I'd ben, it seemed, An' ain't sure yit whether I rally dreamed, Nor, ef I did, how long I might ha' slep', When I hearn some un stompin' up the step, An' lookirz' round, ef two an' two make four, I see a Pilgrim Father in the door.

He wore a steeple-hat, tall boots, an' spurs With rowels to 'em big ez ches'nut-burrs, An' his gret sword behind him sloped away Long'z a man's speech thet dunno wut to say.-- "Ef your name's Biglow, an' your given-name Hosee," sez he, "it's arter you I came; I'm your gret-gran they multiplied by three."

"My wut?" sez I.--your gret-gret-gret," sez he: "You wouldn't ha' never ben here but for me.

Two hundred an' three year ago this May, The s.h.i.+p I come in sailed up Boston Bay; I'd been a cunnle in our Civil War,-- But wut on girth hev ,you gut up one for?

Coz we du things in England, 'tain't for you To git a notion you can du 'em tu: I'm told you write in public prints: ef true, It's nateral you should know a thing or two."-- "Thet air's an argymunt I can't endorse,-- 'Twould prove, coz you wear spurs, you kep' a horse:

But du pray tell me, 'fore we furder go, How in all Natur' did you come to know 'Bout our affairs," sez I "in Kingdom-Come?"-- "Wal, I worked round at sperrit-rappin' some, An' danced the tables till their legs wuz gone, In hopes o' larnin wut wuz goin' on,"

Sez he, "but mejums lie so like all-split Thet I concluded it wuz best to quit.

But, come now, ef you wun't confess to knowin', You've some conjectures how the thing's a-goin'."-- "Gran'ther," sez I, "a vane warn't never known Nor asked to hev a jedgment of its own; An' yit, ef 'tain't gut rusty in the jints, It's safe to trust its say on certin pints It knows the wind's opinions to a T, An' the wind settles wut the weather'll be."

"I never thought a scion of our stock Could grow the wood to make a weatherc.o.c.k; When I wuz younger'n you, skurce more'n a shaver, No airthly wind," sez he, "could make me waver!"

(Ez he said this, he clinched his jaw an' forehead, Hitchin' his belt to bring his sword-hilt forrard.) "Jes' so it wuz with me," sez I, "I swow, When I wuz younger'n wut you see me now,-- Nothin' from Adam's fall to Huldy's bonnet, Thet I warm't full-c.o.c.ked with my jedgment on it; But now I'm gittin' on in life, I find It's a sight harder to make up my mind,-- Nor I don't often try tu, when events Will du it for me free of all expense.

The moral question's ollus plain enough,-- It's jes' the human-natur' side thet's tough; Wut's best to think mayn't puzzle me nor you,-- The pinch comes in decidin' wut to du; Ef you read History, all runs smooth ez grease, Coz there the men ain't nothin' more'n idees,-- But come to make it, ez we must to-day, Th' idees hev arms an' legs an' stop the way It's easy fixin' things in facts an' figgers,-- They can't resist, nor warn't brought up with nigers; But come to try your the'ry on,--why, then Your facts an' figgers change to ign'ant men Actin' ez ugly--"--"Smite 'em hip an' thigh!"

Sez gran'ther, "and let every man-child die!

Oh for three weeks o' Crommle an' the Lord!

Up, Isr'el, to your tents an' grind the sword!

"Thet kind o' thing worked wal in ole Judee, But you forgit how long it's hen A.D.; You think thet's ellerkence--I call it shoddy, A thing," sez I, "wun't cover soul nor body; I like the plain all-wool o' common-sense, Thet warms ye now, an' will a twelvemonth hence.

You took to follerin' where the Prophets beckoned.

An', fust you knowed on, back come Charles the Second; Now, wut I want's to hev all we gain stick, An' not to start Millennium too quick; We hain't to punish only, but to keep, An' the cure's gut to go a cent'ry deep"

"Wal, milk-an'-water ain't the best o' glue,"

Sez he, "an' so you'll find before you're thru;

"Strike soon," sez he, "or you'll be deadly ailin'-- Folks thet's afeared to fail are sure o' failin'; G.o.d hates your sneakin' creturs thet believe He'll settle things they run away an' leave!"

He brought his foot down fiercely, ez he spoke, An' give me sech a startle thet I woke.

AN INDIAN-SUMMER REVERIE

What visionary tints the year puts on, When failing leaves falter through motionless air Or numbly cling and s.h.i.+ver to be gone!

How s.h.i.+mmer the low flats and pastures bare, As with her nectar Hebe Autumn fills The bowl between me and those distant hills, And smiles and shakes abroad her misty, tremulous hair!

No more the landscape holds its wealth apart.

Making me poorer in my poverty, But mingles with my senses and my heart; My own projected spirit seems to me In her own reverie the world to steep; 'Tis she that waves to sympathetic sleep, Moving, as she is moved, each field and hill, and tree.

How fuse and mix, with what unfelt degrees, Clasped by the faint horizon's languid arms, Each into each, the hazy distances!