Douglass Sherley

“ Thare the bullrushes growed, and the cattails so tall,
And the sunshine and shadder fell over it all;
And it mottled the worter with amber and gold
Tel the glad lilies rocked in the ripples that rolled;
And the snake-feeder's four gauzy wings fluttered by
Like the ghost of a daisy dropped out of the sky,
Or a wownded apple-blossom in the breeze's controle
As it cut acrost some orchurd to'rds the old swimmin'-hole.
Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! ”

“ Long before the avalanche-like advent of this State-
wide Literary Madness, the Star of this Poet had risen—
risen before, and still shines beyond, and above them all.
The hand which wrote "Goodbye, Jim"—not classical
in either Greek or Roman sense, yet a great
American Classic—with its pungent odor of Blue Jeans, with
its clean, sweet, clear-cut, fine smell, of its native soil—
that hand may never again hold the Pen; the man
himself, may crumble—God forbid!—back into the Dust—
that "Little Dust of Harm"—out of which he came;
but his Poems will not, cannot die. ”

“ The Wizard whispered to the driver "Go."
As the team, in a brisk trot, started away.
you, still standing, coatless, hatless, waved your
hand—in that quick little jerky fashion peculiar
to you—to those little naked Urchins.
With a mighty Shout, they ran back to the Pool,
and gave a rapid-firing Exhibition of the Single
Dive; the Double Dive; and one—a dare-devil—the Triple Dive!
What a Memory, what a Priceless Memory, you must
have given those Boys of Martinsville, that Ideal
Summer Afternoon, in the Long While Ago!
Martinsville! To you of Blessed Memory! ”

“ Before we could remember anything but the eyes
Of the angels lookin' out as we left Paradise;
But the merry days of youth is beyond our controle,
And its hard to part ferever with the old swimmin'-hole. ”

“ The best way's jes' to listen, like your humble servant does.
And jes' concede Jap Miller is the best man ever wuz!
On the drive back to the little Station, you were
the Man, the Poet, but not the Mystic!
You delighted the Wizard with your genial
flow of Verse, of Story.
When the watchful Wizard, smuggled you aboard
your train—with privacy unbroken you, like
King Saul, returned to your People, refreshed in body,
restored in mind; for had not the Wizard done for you,
as David did for Saul, for had not he brought Peace
to your no longer Troubled Soul? ”

“ Cultured Men, of Cultured Women, ready,
eager, to follow you—that Mystic You! into
the Creation of a New Cult, of a New Religion!
In your Poems there is but a trickle of the Mystic
—a flash a dash—as the falling of a Star! ”

“ Martinsville with no mean verse?
And did it not run something like this?
Jap Miller down at Martinsville's the blamedest feller yit!
When he starts in a-talkin' other folks is apt to quit!—
'Pears like that mouth o' his'n wuzn't made fer nothin' else
But jes' to argify 'em down and gether in their pelts:
He'll talk you down on tariff; er he'll talk you down on tax.
And prove the pore man pays 'em all and them's about the fac's!
Religen, law, er politics, prize-fightin', er base-ball
Jes' tetch Jap up a little and he'll post you 'bout 'em all. ”