Irving Sidney Dix

“ Strikes the cold Northwind, bringing frost and snow,
She sends her Fairies through the frozen land
To deck with sculpture all the world below;
Soon every bank, so lately green with grass,
Like streets of marble to the margin lies,
And here and there, wherever one may pass,
Frail, fairy structures magic-like arise;
The slender willows, bow'd in artless grief,
Appear in white, as pledge of Winter's care,
And every idle reed and clinging leaf
Have spirits, full as bright, beside them there;
While pine and hemlock, shorn of all their green,
Stand out like sculptur'd Druids of the wood ”

“ And yet how peaceful seems the face of Heaven,
How calm the earth is—Nature is at rest,
And all the hopes that unto Spring were given,
Folds Autumn now in silence to her breast;
The birds are singing, yet not half so sweetly
As when they sung their song at opening Spring,
And flowers are blooming, yet not so completely
As when the birds were first upon the wing;
And I am singing—but the fading glory
Of Autumn-time subdues my idle song,
For what is Autumn but the sweet sad story
Of leaves that fade and lives that last not long.
OCTOBER
Come walk a mile with me—'Tis now October ”

“ Where the snow-fairies are again designing
Another robe for Nature's barren breast.
MARCH.
Come walk a mile with me—'Tis March and windy,
And Winter's dying breath comes hard and fast,
And hark!—the storm, like death-bells of a Sunday,
Tolls the sad knell upon the icy blast;
Louder and louder now the winds are wailing,
Faster and faster wings the frozen snow,
Darker and darker the cold clouds are sailing,
As the March-storm goes hurrying to and fro. ”

“ The great ship struck the rock-like ice, and shook from floor to floor.
Then there was breaking timbers, and bulging plates of steel,
And noise of great commotion along that vessel's keel—
Then there were cries of anguish, and curses from rough men,
And earnest prayers for safety—O prayers for safety then.
For women wept in terror, and stout men drop'd a tear,
And the shouting and the tumult was maddening to hear,
[Pg 29] Yet there amidst that seething the life-boats, one by one,
Were set adrift at midnight—where cold sea-rivers run. ”

“ Thou art also a friend of liberty,—
Thou art, indeed, a very Prince of Peace,
Who, conscious of the uselessness of war,
Believest man's red carnage soon should cease,
And nations now for nobler things prepare:
What needs my pen in furtherance recite
Thy kindly interest in the weal of man—
Yet, lacking need, I nothing lose to write,
But rather gain in praising as I can,
For, if thy wealth the world sweet peace may give,
Perhaps my lines in praise of peace may live. ”

“ His bold instructors,—Want,—Adversity,—
And Disappointment, with her heavy hand;
The whip of Scorn, and Sorrow's bitter book,
And Sickness' long and tedious term,
And all the various teachers of the school.
And if perchance these lessons be forgot,
These, his instructors, will rehearse him well,
Lest he forget in later life these things,
And be a dullard in the school of schools,
A freshman wise in his own foolishness. ”

“ Wheels a lone flicker o'er the darkening lea.
MAY
Come walk a mile with me—'Tis merry May-time;
The little lambs are gamboling on the green,—
Nature is glad—it is her hour of playtime,
And now, or never, her true heart is seen ”

“ And no one read that lesson there written in the dark,
And no one heard that sermon that went straight to its mark.
Nor shall we know their story, the saddest of the sea,
Or shall we learn the sequel, the sorrow yet to be,
But long shall we remember how brave men bravely died
For some poor, lowly woman with a baby at her side.
And when the world gets scorning the greatest of the great,
When poverty sits cursing the man of large estate,
O then let men remember, how, in that awful hour,
The wealth of all the world was powerless in its power. ”

“ An Idyll of The Hills Part 1 JANUARY
ome walk a mile with me—'Tis January;
The knee-deep snow lies heavy on the ground
And hark!—the icy winds—how swift they hurry
Over the fields with melancholy sound ”

“ Like a red rose upon the distant hill,
Till all the earth seems tenderly forgetting
Day's dying light on meadow, lake and rill;
But come!—for darkness soon will gather round us,
And we must pass through yonder woodlands there;
And then white fields of buckwheat will surround us,
And then—then—home we shall together share.
AUGUST
Come walk a mile with me—'Tis August. ”

“ Hugs the broad roofs, deep-burden'd with the snow,
While clouds of snow are round the low eaves whirling.
How cold it is!—Come, let us homeward go
There will we find the cheerful fire still burning,
There ruddy warmth will make our faces glow,
And there kind hearts will welcome our returning;
Come!—let us hasten through the drifty snow.
FEBRUARY.
Come walk a mile with me—'Tis February ”

“ So lest those friends who have shown an interest in my verses should think that I have turned aside from the Path of Poetry, I herewith offer "The Calendar and Other Verses," as evidence of my love for and interest in the greatest of all the arts, hoping that the time may come when I shall be able to present a more worthy offering to the Muses and perhaps justify the kind words that have recently appeared in regards to the author of "The Quiet Life"—A Plain Poem of the Hills, which, in a revised form, appeared serially during the past summer in The Wayne Countean. ”

“ That, like a dyke, hold in life's mighty stream
Until the floods of Springtime can abate,
And in a clearer, safer channel course again.
[Pg 19]
So, with life's lessons still unlearned
Full many a scholar e'en would graduate
With highest honors, and in his pride
And surety of knowledge be a god
To give advice to those who should advise ”