Old Age Echoes

TO SOAR IN FREEDOM AND IN FULLNESS OF POWER

I HAVE not so much emulated the birds that musically sing,
I have abandon'd myself to flights, broad circles.
The hawk, the seagull, have far more possess'd me than the
     canary or mocking-bird,
I have not felt to warble and trill, however sweetly,
I have felt to soar in freedom and in the fullness of power,
     joy, volition.

1897 1897

THEN SHALL PERCEIVE

IN softness, languor, bloom, and growth,
Thine eyes, ears, all thy sense — thy loftiest attribute
     — all that takes cognizance of beauty,
Shall rouse and fill — then shall perceive!

1897 1897

THE FEW DROPS KNOWN

OF heroes, history, grand events, premises, myths, poems,
The few drops known must stand for oceans of the
     unknown,
On this beautiful and thick peopl'd earth, here and there a
     little specimen put on record,
A little of Greeks and Romans, a few Hebrew canticles, a few
     death odors as from graves, from Egypt —
What are they to the long and copious retrospect of anti quity?

1897 1897

ONE THOUGHT EVER AT THE FORE

ONE thought ever at the fore —
That in the Divine Ship, the World, breasting Time and
     Space,
All Peoples of the globe together sail, sail the same voyage,
     are bound to the same destination.

1897 1897

WHILE BEHIND ALL FIRM AND ERECT

WHILE behind all, firm and erect as ever,
Undismay'd amid the rapids — amid the irresistible
     and deadly urge,
Stands a helmsman, with brow elate and strong hand.

1897 1897

A KISS TO THE BRIDE

SACRED, blithesome, undenied,
With benisons from East and West,
And salutations North and South,
Through me indeed to-day a million hearts and hands,
Wafting a million loves, a million soulfelt prayers;
— Tender and true remain the arm that shields thee!
Fair winds always fill the ship's sails that sail thee!
Clear sun by day, and light stars at night, beam on thee!
Dear girl — through me the ancient privilege too,
For the New World, through me, the old, old wedding greeting,
O youth and health! O sweet Missouri rose! O bonny bride!
Yield thy red cheeks, thy lips, to-day,
Unto a Nation's loving kiss.

1874 1897

NAY, TELL ME NOT TO-DAY THE PUBLISH'D SHAME

NAY, tell me not to-day the publish'd shame,
Read not to-day the journal's crowded page,
The merciless reports still branding forehead after forehead,
The guilty column following guilty column.

To-day to me the tale refusing,
Turning from it — from the white capitol turning,
Far from these swelling domes, topt with statues,
More endless, jubilant, vital visions rise
Unpublish'd, unreported.

Through all your quiet ways, or North or South, you Equal
     States, you honest farms,
Your million untold manly healthy lives, or East or West,
     city or country,
Your noiseless mothers, sisters, wives, unconscious