Helen Hay Whitney

“ Her voice was the lilting of a rain of silver waters,
And her lovers were as endless as her lands.
Down thro’ the birch wood with her maidens all about her,
So virginal she came with dainty tread,
At my eyes she was silent,—could a gypsy turn and flout her:
Love I looked and love I spoke, till white grew red.
Free she was as fair, she forgot her father’s palace,
Left her lands to wander at my side;
She is crowned with forest leaves, with my two curved hands for chalice:
Spring and love must bring a gypsy to his bride. ”

“ Yet your presence, a song, murmurs ever in hopeless refrain,
And I wake in the night with my empty hands yearning in vain
For the touch of your hair.
You went, and I triumphed—I crushed out my heart with a kiss
On the lips that are ashen, forgetting spring’s wonderful bliss
And your tremulous lips;
[Pg 73] Yet the kisses were ghostly with jasmine, dear jasmine of May—
The new has the soul of the old, is aflame with the way
And the touch of your lips.
You came and you went, and the world wearies on with its game. ”

“ A little green snake curls thro' her hair—
The scent of the yew is strong and sweet—
Her eyes have drawn me to her feet,
And I lie along on the drenching ground
And worship—and watch the snake curl round,
His tongue shoots thro' the air.
Now—slowly she takes her eyes from me,
And I dream and wait,
Till in shades of hate
My love of her smile has faded quite
And I spring to kill her, there in the night—
But only the yew I see. THE DEAD NIGHT
The strong brave Night is dead. ”

“ Where gods and goddesses appear as birds,
Trees, plants or moonlight, gently rising tide,
And shining girdle of leaves,—all homely things,
Which hold the people's hearts.—In this fair land
Taka was born. Thro' sixteen years of moon
And tropic sun she blossomed in the air.
Chilled by no frost, the world unconsciously
Mirrored her sweetness back to her. The sun
Had kissed her skin to a warm topaz; rare
As dusky wealth of Autumn, her sweet breast,
Gleaming and bare, was hung with ropes of flowers
Yellow and white, and in her curling hair
12 Glimmered the pure gardenia. ”

“ Till the last leaf whirls thro’ the clanging gate
Of the last sunrise. Did he learn too late?
Maybe, that one may hear the moans and cries
That ring by night, and yet be calm and wise.
And teach the women how a man can hate!
I did not think a soul could live so long,
And be so little. He remembers youth
With a wry smile of disbelief; the wrong
Was this, he squeezed the fruit so dry
So long ago; and now must live, forsooth
Because a woman will not let him die. ”

“ Why thro' the space of despair should my spirit be hurled
Seeking for truth, when beneath lies this pearl of a world?
Seers may direct us thro' pain to discover the soul,
Comforting joy may not give us the absolute whole,
But if the seers should be wrong, may the truth not be ours
Thanking dear Life for its light and its beautiful hours? ”

“ The pale drops cried to heaven against the wrong,
Wrong to her people and her love, till now
So beautiful.
Malua knew her pain,
And how upon its verdict hung his life.
Death's flame had touched the golden rose of love.
If it be dross or gold, the test should tell.
The black gulf night that lies 'twixt dawn and dawn,
Deepened by darker sin,—could frail love, tired
With passion, hope to bridge the perilous way? ”

“ When faint love lingers in the darkness drear.
I will not—Ah, but should he come to-night
I think my life might break thro' very bliss,
This little will should so be torn apart
That all my soul might fail in golden light
And let me die—So do I long for this.
Ah, love, thine eyes!—Nay, love—Thy heart, thy heart! AGE
I have a dream, that somewhere in the days,
Since when a myriad suns have burned and died,
There was a time my soul was not for pride
Of spendthrift youth, the pensioner who pays
Dole for the pain of searching thro' the haze
Where joy lies hidden. ”

“ Will the bud blossom where the frost has sped.
Timid, you dared not hark when angels sang.
All, all is lost, without one saving pang.
[Pg 8]
VI The Supreme Sacrifice
Better than life, better than sea and morn,
And all the sun-stained fragments of the day—
Ah! more than breeze, than purple clouds that stray
Across dim twilights—I, the tempest-torn,
Fighting the stars for glory, who must scorn
Heart-drops bespread along love’s cruel way
Like scattered petals on the breast of May—
Better than life I love you, I forlorn. ”

“ You are mine—by Life and Death!” [Pg 53] FOAM
I have dallied with wantons, made mad by their passionate wine,
Time, like a golden ball, I have tossed to the wastes of the air.
I have whispered with Beauty, whose song has been sister to mine,
Laughed with the long late hours who lie with the stars in their hair.
Like the spume on the crest of the wave blowing back to the sea,
Cast from the depths beneath, now to riot and dance in the light,
I have flung you the foam of my heart, to be mask unto me,
Caught to my heart again from the doom of your fugitive sight. ”

“ The sun rose dimly thro' the pallid rain,
Dear Heart—and have we strength to face the day?
The times and life alike are old and grey,
All worn with long monotonies of pain.
Lo—we are working out the curse of Cain,
Who never felt the fire of passion's sway.
Ah—show us crimson in some tragic way
That we may live!—Fate laughed in her disdain.
A thread of scarlet clashed upon mine eyes
Hung for a moment and was swept behind,
And blankly I beheld the hopeless skies
For day by contrast now is grimmest night—
Remembering light as do the newly blind
I pray for death to hide the bitter sight. ”

“ Death, that was lying by the forest pool.
At dawn the weary boy, who thro' the night
Had cried his love and anguish to the dark,
Wandering half crazed thro' forest deeps unknown,
Feeling upon his throat the hand of hate,
Feeling upon his heart the still more potent
Fingers of love, came to the open shore
Waiting for day. The restless, eager foam,
Stretching white arms around the sleeping earth,
52 Woke his great love anew. The loneliness
Of open spaces set his hungry soul
Dreaming of Taka, Taka who should come
And fill the empty world for him. ”

“ As on triumphal journeying he goes.
So through green woodlands in the twilight dim,
Led by the faint, pale argent of a star,
What though to others it is weary night,
Nature holds out her wide, sweet heart to him;
And, leaning o’er the world’s mysterious bar,
His soul is great with everlasting light.
[Pg 19]
XVII Tempest and Calm
First came the tempest, and the world was torn
Upon its mighty passion—all the deep
Trembled before it. From the haggard steep
To the sweet valley with its brooding corn,
Its foaming lips in expletives of scorn
Lashed into life the world’s eternal sleep ”

“ If you were but a rose—dear love.
Bird-love, rose-love, to last the day
Why shall not we whose hearts are light
Put by the coming of the night,
Catch glints of rapture from the sky,
The scents that swing where lilies lie,
And ring them to a garland white
To ease the pain of life away?
Bird-love, rose-love, to last the day! THE JOY OF LIFE
Her hair was twined with vine leaves thro' the gold,
The leopard skin about her shoulders flung
Showed gleams of her as marble—fair and cold ”

“ Thro’ dulling, fevered eyes. The dregs and lees
Of wine long spilt to dead divinities.
Grey, empty days when Spring is never green,
Can the heart answer what these riddles mean—
Can the life hold such hopelessness as these?
Love lying low in the long pleasant grass,
Youth with his eager face against the sun,
They may not guess the hours when these shall pass,
In what drear coin such lovely dreams are paid,
At what grim cost their flowery days are won,
When man is old and lonely and afraid. ”

“ All of these poems are explicit, strong, and interesting.—New York Sun.
Times—William Watson is, above all things, an artist who is proud of his calling and conscientious in every syllable that he writes. To appreciate his work you must take it as a whole, for he is in line with the high priests of poetry, reared, like Ion, in the shadow of the Delphic presences and memories, and weighing every word of his utterance before it is given to the world.
Athenæum—His poetry is a "criticism of life," and, viewed as such, it is magnificent in its lucidity, its elegance, its dignity.... ”

“ Into the moonlight and upon his foe.
Fixed to the ground, they strove as giant trees
Tossing fierce branches in a storm; their wrath
Smote on them like a tempest, hot with hate.
Malua knew a curse was in the hands
48 That sought his throat, and in the blazing eyes
Close to his own. Life would defend fair life
As chief and Taka's lover. Round the shoulders
Dark and strong, straining to his heaving breast,
He threw his arms, and locked in that embrace
They stood a moment, breathing with the quick
Sharp catch of weary runners. ”

“ The flower-sweet maidens, dancing in the breeze—
Holds Love a blossom with such fruits as these?
I gave up Love, I gave up lovely Love,
And sought the island of enchanted skies,
With little rainbow rifts of seraphs’ eyes,
Round which the flaming sword forever plies
Against the darkened world of rue and sighs.
Alas for Love! alas for lovely Love!
In dreams I heard the beating of his wing;
His soft voice, beautiful as sea in spring,
Mourned through the empty songs the seraphs sing;
Life seemed in sleep more dear than everything.
[Pg 51] Take me back, Love; take me back, lovely Love. ”

“ Love, love, love. [Pg 17] SANS-JOY
Hide your eyes, Angels, beneath your gold phylacteries,
Israfel will charm you with the magic of his song:
Yet you will not smile for him, by reason of your memories,
For Lucifer is absent, and the cry goes up, How long!
For his expiation you would give your dreams and destinies,
Paradise is clouded by the measure of your pain;
Hide your eyes, Angels, beneath your gold phylacteries,
Till the jasper gates swing wide to bring him home again. ”

“ The day was made alive by human flowers,
Sweet maidens who against the emerald
Showed warm and brown in purest harmony.
The fierce bright flame that is the tropic sea
Burned on their eyes and called them to its heart.
Like eager sea birds they forgot the land,
And, happy as the amorous waves, they gave
Their slim brown bodies to the sea's embrace.
They found them driftwood and astride they leapt
The feathered breakers, one with daring skill
7 Curved her sweet length to lie within the palm
Of a strong wave, and so was brought to shore.
"Taka," they cried, "has beaten us;" ”

“ It might look in thine eyes and understand
The song they sing unto a weary land,
Making it radiant, yet because I dare,
To love thee, being weak, lose not thine air
Of passive distance, fateful and most grand.
Pity me not, nor turn away awhile
Till absence's cloud has caught my passion up.
Ah, be not kind! for love's sake, be not kind!
Grant me the tragic deepness of the cup,
And when thine eyes have flashed and made me blind,
Kill me beneath the shadow of thy smile. ”

“ The English speaking world has waited a thousand years for a worthy dramatic impersonation of King Alfred. And here it is.... The play will stand not alone upon the grateful response it wins from the English national heart, but as a work of art.... The author is supremely a poet, the master of metaphor not less than of melody.... It is a play not only to be read but to be acted.... ”

“ To sing the bliss your lips should teach to mine.
And if the sage, declaring life is vain,
Should frown upon the flower of all our days
And chide the sun that knows no tears of rain,
He should not tease our heart with cynic eye—
The soul’s vast altar stands beyond his gaze
When two have lived—then shall they fear to die? ”

“ Coming thro’ the porch of dreams
To the portal of the day,
Vacant all the ether seems
With a grief that leaves her grey.
In a threnody of sighs,
With the cloud wreaths ’round her face,
Morning veils her heavy eyes,
Weeping for her vanished grace.
Ah! in gaining lusty Dawn,
Life, and pleasant facts of light,
Why must we, the darkness gone,
Lose the dreams that haunt the night? ”

“ No smile which other smile has softly kissed
Or doting gaze which Time must draw apart,
But spirit's spirit in the trailing mist. ON THE MOUNTAIN'S SLOPE
High on the mountain's slope I pause and turn—
Over my head, by the rough crag-points high,
Seems rent and torn the tender hovering sky,
Till almost—thro'—I see a Heaven-spark burn;
Then downward to the sleeping world I yearn
Whose eyes so heavy droop they may not try
To catch the higher gleam—and live thereby—
Youth passes graveward—and they never learn. ”

“ Shivered the dusk where Taka stood. The light
Lay on her swelling throat, and showed her eyes
Starred like a tropic night. The stranger's hand
Trembled a little, and his quick-drawn breath
Carried a message from his breast to hers.
They left the hut together. From the clear
Bright heat of noon they turned, and took their way
Into the greenly silent forest. Leaves
Flickered above wet blossoms, simple sounds
Of homely labor borne upon the breeze
Made them the more alone. They spoke of Love,
A mighty word to ease the strange new pain
Born in their hearts. ”

“ We must believe that some day when you lie
Hid from the lights, beneath the open sky
The trees will bend more perfectly above you,
The flowers dance gayer for they'll know and love you,
And we will mind a little less the cold,
Remembering your grace when we are old. ”

“ The windy rain beats, beats about my door—
Alas for love when love goes wandering!
The dawn mist rises on the forest floor—
Alas for life when love goes wandering!
With wet, green leaves the palm-trees lash the night,
The pitiless trades drive wild gods in their flight.
And, ah, my lover! Moons have come and gone,
The fighting ended, still he lingers on.
Sleepless I hear the demon wind above—
Alas for love when love goes wandering!
And I must wed with one I do not love—
Alas for life when love goes wandering!
[Pg 76]
XXXVI This was the Song
We have forgotten. ”

“ See through these eyes the sweetness of the day,
Feel how the sunbeams dance in Summer's wine,
Hold fast my hands and let our pulse combine
And with my steps dance down the happy way;
For youth is love and love is light and gay,
Little sad face.
Little sad heart, come close, so close to mine,
And know the utmost limits of the will
Of all the worlds, till soft thy heart divine
A joy which can encompass grief like thine;
Hide in my breast, and let faint pulses thrill,
For youth is love, and love is great and still,
Little sad heart. ”

“ He caught the wreath wherewith on Tonga's shore
The maids had crowned him "King of Love and Beauty,"
24 And cast it from him with a high disdain
Of token other than from Taka's hand.
She laughed to see it, and her step was light
Along the flowery way.
Love in this land
Grows into perfect stature as the swift
Sweet growth of nature. In these gracious souls
Love stood full-armed, godlike, from birth. ”

“ Desperate, golden and green, wild as a river in spate?
Her long lithe limbs were brown, and she took the world as a leopard,
Grave, disdainful and strong, takes of his prey without hate.
Glamourie slept in her eyes, terribly calm in the tumult,
Hidden and secret and sweet was the smile of her crimson mouth.
A marigold wound in her hair, she swayed like wind in the desert,
Burning and thrilling to thirst the hearts that dream of the South. [Pg 41]
Whence came the fire in her eyes? ”

“ Sleep, for to wake is death."
And after singing came the dance; the brown
Lithe women decked with bright fantastic hues
Wavered into the circle of the light.
Kneeling, they wove their spells. As gracious flowers
Swayed by the winds of evening, they were blown
By breezes of desire. The eye was filled
With luxury of soft motion and the sound
Of soft monotonous chanting charmed the ear.
41 Then in their midst came Taka, and she stood,
Waiting the signal. Slow she raised her arms,
Slow as tho' ages hung upon her hands
Heavy with burdened love. The music hushed. ”

“ Who with the world has held his soul his own."
He sadly turned, this height he could not dare.
But—Stay—the text upon the altar there—
"I wait for him who has not made a moan
Howe'er his kind have used his heaven-sent dower.
Fear not, and burn thine incense, lowly heart."
And sudden brightness turns the averted face,
To holy sense of majesty and power—
And a voice:—"Master—this indeed thou art."
Wondrous music trembles thro' the space. EAST AND WEST
You have not ceased for me. ”

“ Life—from my heart, which is their beryl cup,
Crowning the winter of my loneliness.
[Pg 23]
XXI Eadem Semper
How shall I hold you? By a scimitar
Of flashing wit suspended o’er your head,
Oh, my Beloved? Or with lips rose-red
Lure you to Lethe? Shall I stand afar,
Pale and remote and distant as a star,
Challenging love? Or by a scarlet thread
Jealousy’s wiles, beguile by scorn and dread?
Wounding the heart I love with hateful scar. ”

“ With unshed tears; their beauty and their love
Touched like soft music on his injured soul
35 With infinite sadness and a hopeless calm.
He left them there and sought the forest shades
To search his heart. A great nobility
Slept in his native breast, and those pale drops
Of northern blood had taught him self-control
And might of mercy. To and fro he paced,
Learning his lesson. Taka, little moon
Sent by the gods to light his loneliness,
Was his no longer. He must twist his heart,
Wried with grim pain, to smiles of pleasantness. ”

“ Down comes the sun, a red shot from a merciful sling
Burning its heart with swift death as an end to the pain. THE LAST CLOUD
A red rose cloud upon the evening sky,
A gallant cloud which dies in foremost fight,
Too proud for prisons of triumphant night.
Knowing no pause, no strain of changing years,
Its little hour too short for dreams or tears,
The faithful sun its first and latest light—
Who would not so be glad to fight and die!
A red rose cloud upon the evening sky. SONG
Love is a broken lily,
A pale and crownless rose
With golden heart made chilly
By traitor touch of snows. ”

“ She shall pity me not,” he said;
“Too late for the nether way of hate,
I may flout her when I’m dead.”
Out in the dark of the moonless sky, [Pg 52]
The rope was round his neck,
“’Tis the torque of gold from her throat so cold,
Why should I rue or reck?”
Tighter tangled the hempen cord;
“’Tis her fingers hot with fire,
In a tempest of fear she draws me near,—
Now dying is not so dire!”
Black, more black grew the empty void,
“And I but a broken reed,
For there’s only her face in this grisly place”—
But his love stood there indeed! ”

“ Why labor at a work the ages plan?—
Life has been lived so oft—an outworn thing!
Then hark! the time-sweet carol of a bird,
New as a flower; and see—ah, shame to man!
The endless aspiration of the Spring.
[Pg 26]
XXIV Aspiration II
The full throat of the world is charged with song,
Morning and twilight melt with ecstasy
In the high heat of noon. Simply to be,
Palpitant where the green spring forces throng,
Eager for life, life unashamed and strong—
This is desire fulfilled. Exalted, free,
The spirit gains her ether, scornfully
Denies existence that is dark or wrong. ”

“ The very flowers which smile on my sad face
I am afraid of. See! they are the worst
Of all my fears; so fair—yet black accurst.
The languid passion-poppy sways and dips
To show the black heart bursting into flame.
The crimson evil of a satyr's lips
A sneering nodding finger-post of shame;
A thousand other flowers without a name
Huddle all trembling in the dusk behind
Like hunted ghosts, whose eyes are white and blind.
The grass is not the grass that overhead
Cooled my bare feet with daisies' purest snows ”

“ If Taka drew
From out his arms and love a heart-beat's time,
She had decided, and Uhila won.
This the boy knew. Taka had seen him, Ah!
Her woman's heart in pity and distress
57 Shivered as tho' cold death had laid a hand
Upon her brow. Malua felt a hell
Deep as the world, and then—the sky, pale stars,
Rose dawn, unfathomed heaven rocked in his heart
With tumult of his glory. Taka turned,
Drew closer in his arm, and raising up
Her flowery face smiled in his eyes.
'Twas done—
Death, life and passionate passion burned away
In the white flame of love. ”

“ A Man once loved a Woman, in the days of old,
Our bond is the strongest in the world, they said—
The Angels up above
Are jealous of our love,
Perhaps they are wishing we were dead, overhead.
So they loved for a Time and the passing of a Time,
And the Angel of Indifference, smiling down, saw their fire,
And he covered for a space
With his sombre wings his face,
That they twain might have of love all desire, without tire.
But love's perfect joy within them burned at last to a flame
Till they longed for a breeze that would gently cool the heart. ”

“ The body lives when stricken spirit dies?
The blow has fallen, yet I can recall
The first of days when this dead heart drew breath—
A wondrous moon-flower waking of a heart.
Strange—then as now the moment seemed to part
Body from soul, so like are birth and death;
So did I gain, and so I lost my all.
[Pg 16]
XIV Flowers of Ice
The lights within the ice-floes are our flowers,
Lily and daffodil and violet.
Beneath these monstrous suns that never set
Tremble soft rainbows, young as Earth’s first hours,
Ancient as Time. No balm of gentle showers
Make for their growth ”

“ Seemed to withdraw their shadows from the place
Sacred to death, the violent crime of war.
A little shadow darkened Taka's heart,
Could this sweet world contain both death and love?
She sought Malua's eyes to be assured
That love lives always. ”

“ Hither and thither thro' the solemn world,
Glory of purple, passionate blazing red
Glints thro' the gloom, and thro' the grey is swirled—
Ah! but the leaves twined sweet about her head.
"Heedless—men pass me in their search for life,
Hunting for altars to their souls' fine fires,
Crying the sun or joy of toil and strife
And know not that 'tis I—their heart desires.
They dream not that the sheen on peacock's breast,
The haze and perfume of a Summer's day,
The silver stealing o'er the twilight West
Are joys more rich than all the world's display." MIST
Mist on the sea ”

“ Nor open weary eyes,
For waking is but weeping
And Sleep is Paradise.
Love is a cadence trailing
Where broken music falls,
A hapless shadow sailing
Across deserted walls.
So still my heart lie sleeping
Till love's hot sun be set,
For waking is but weeping.
Asleep—sad eyes forget. IN THE GRAVE
Dear Love—do you wake in that land where my waking is done? ”

“ Glows lurid thro' the gloom—while from afar,
Beats marching of innumerable feet.
Is this the place where tragic armies meet?
The throb of terror that presages war?—
I strain to see, then softly on my sight
There falls the vision, manifold they come—
White listless Day chained to her brother Night—
Their hands are shackled and their lips are dumb,
And as they meet the air where each one dies,
They turn and smile at me—with weary eyes. ”

“ Does the pearl know?
Does the bird know, when thro' the waking dawn
He soaring sees below the silvered lawn,
And weary men who wait to watch the day
Steal o'er the heights where he may wheel and stray? ”