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SEA DRIFT

SEA DRIFT

OR

TRIBUTE TO THE OCEAN

BY /

ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL

Author of "The Thilosophy of Individuality ," "The Physi- cal "Basis of Immortality/' "The Sexes Through- out U^ature," etc.

JAMES T. WHITE & CO.

NEW YORK

THE LIBRAKV OF CONGRtSS

Two Cof)i8» Hocoived

MAR 26 1903

1 Copymjht Lnliy

(JlASS ^ » XXc. No

COPY U.

Copyright, 1902,

BY

JAMES T. WHITE & CO.

*WE SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY"

SEA DRIFT.

Vast and pliant Ocean, whose soft, large arms Enfold the Earth, holding in close embrace, To share with her the tireless daily round Through the long court-ways of the royal sun In unabated power and joy of might ; We greet thee ! closest kin of air and light, And dowered like them with fair-souled purity. All hail, great Ocean, reprint of the sky !

Inspired with motion, pauseless, with no end — Motion, the quickened breath of panting stars. And wings on the round shoulders of the worlds, Heart-throbs of sound and all deep harmonies. The pulse of light, the soul of solar flame. Swift gliding footsteps on the floors of space. And poetry and bloom of measured time; Twin-born with sentient gain of finite life ; — Ocean and Earth, in twofold majesty. Inspired with motion ; wrought of woven change ;

6 SEA DRIFT.

A twain made one by subtle deathless bonds, Form our great world, equipped and glorified ! No path, no chart, no sign to mark the way, Both forge right on through awed and wonder- ing space, Leaving no wound on its ethereal deeps.

Exuberant in work that needs no rest. Clothed in white samite by the radiant sun, Exchanging signals with the neighboring worlds ; You hold your place among the stars of heaven — A wedded Sea and Earth in nuptial flight, A world as golden as the stars of heaven.

A CHANT OF THE WORLDS.

Through time and through distance on into the

vast ; With endless persistence we hail from the past.

Onrushing and shining, all day and all night ; The blue heavens lining with God's golden light.

Our ranks broken never, not one of us lost; On ! onward forever, in serial host.

Rest needing not, neither renewal of days; To us, pathless ether like firm, beaten ways.

SEA DRIFT. 7

In far, starry sessions, each other's ally, We weave wondrous lessoas in light from on high.

We round every angle — fraternal and strong — And strew love's evangel the blue sky along.

Upright our great neighbors, all kinships abide ; And no rash invaders hearts loyal divide.

From through the far spaces wide friendships

arise ; And, all in our places, our love fills the skies.

Heaven's eyes! we are smiling all day and all

night ; The ages beguiling with movement and light.

Our singing is moving, our moving is song ; Triumphant, God proving, we worlds roll along.

A Living Radiance fills earth, sea and sky, And breathes one breath of Life in all that are ; One sweet and waking sentience, manifold ; More closely kindred all than blessed babes That suck one mothcr'i breast and gladden home.

f SEA DRIFT.

Ocean if very life, we only know In waves, in tides, in foam, in thrill of voice ; — Mere flecks in one infinitude of change ; Illusions telling of the deeper real That would reveal itself as best it may.

So learn we of the Ocean's Source and ours In tones, in forms, in endless wavering change, Reiterating: 'There is Power unchanged, — The One and All — ^by truth interpreted In beauty of revealing light that floods To blindness feeble eyes of sense and soul, Slow conning primers of an endless lore. His unveiled Power would wreck our feeble sight/'

THE PROBLEM.

Shall every atom allies seek and find ?

Shall stones, like worlds, build up of their own

kind? Shall every creature need and seek its own ? Shall all our highest joys dear kinships bind ; Yet those grand worlds go on and on alone, Unhelped by sympathetic sentient mind Conditioned like themselves ; in large outlined? They move by law; but so does everything; Firm, innate laws from our own bodies spring;

SEA DRIFT. 9

To every one of them each act is bound. And yet, within, the living me is found, Learns its own province and pre-emptt its ground.

Vast principalities and powers of life Constructed for a different, grander strife, Unlike to ours, but with large purpose rife, Should hold their higher conferences in love, Thelir kindred joys and hopes perennial prove, And with onmoving worlds in onward friendship

move. Our dearest joys rise from our social needs ; Are there no grander souls who share their larger

deeds ?

The smallest dot can boast its living dower, Then why not lands and oceans of a sentient

power ? Is God too poor to make of many kinds. An ordered growth for all His growing minds ? Who limits Him, the might of Love maligns. Of all organic forms on our own Earth, Each type unfolds a differing mental birth. And from the wealth of all, springs highest

worth.

10 SEA DRIFT,

MYTHS.

A germ of truth has nestled In crudest guess of yore ;

Wise men with mysteries wrestled And only found the more.

The sea and air are teeming With nerveless forms of life;

With slumbering seeds, undreaming, The poorest clay is rife.

Some ancient myths seem wiser Than sanest lore to-day ;

Do worlds need close adviser To aid them all the way?

Do great souls need their helf)er5, Real forms, with mass compact?

Mayhap, the wide sea shelters Its glorious soul, intact.

Ocean, not clothed as we in aching flesh, That grows, and withers as the grass, and dies, Thou livest alway as the ages live! Spirit, lliou art, too glorious for our sight. Of God's first-born — in film of day enwrapped That all may feel thee, find thee near and dear. In thy great self transcendent more than air,

SJiA DRll'T. 11

Than light itself; and protean in hclpfuhiess, Echo of llini who changes not in love, — Il'is hright renection, shadowed to our needs; r»est type of hfe made tangible and real; Re-echoing songs of 11 is high purposes In charity as large as hope demands.

Why are we blinded to the larger lives Who rule the world as wc our bodies rule? — The waking souls of slcei)ing, obvious forms, Akin to all the children of the Living One? They make our universe fraternal home!

Incarnate Ocean is embodied health, With priceless gifts for every wandering breeze; Quick messages, alive and jubilant. Coaxing the leafy i)lains in Ionic dance; On hillsides waving off pale maladies, And scattering strength as hoar frost, autumn loved.

Not one of all life's children, Ocean scorns! The patient, helpful earliest mn'se and friend Of blind, slow groping inimalurily ; His waiting i)atience all the ages envy. His soft phylacteries enfold the r.arlh, And round it full in glorious symmclry Of beauty deeper than the midnight sky — Fair robe for this fair world on which we live.

12 SEA DRIFT.

Earth laurel-crowns her glorious mountain

heights, Grows lilies in her valleys beautiful, And smiles in roses on her sunny plains ; But sweetest blossoms shrink to piteous guise, And make their hasty pilgrimage to dust From whence they came. Mankind — all things

that walk — When life with high achievement passes on, Grown wan and pallid ghosts, step down to

Hades ; Love hiding them from startled eye of day.

Great Ocean finds no death his own estate ; He was, and is, and will be ages hence. He wrapped the naked plains in swaddling

clothes. And saw the rising of the purple hills. Before mankind had lifted stately head And claimed his sovereignty of guiding mind.

Ocean, in his higher state — fair water Distilled in sunshine for the dear Earth's needs — The beverage for children of the light — Knows no corruption and no doom of death. Though foreign taints should burden weary days With soil and cloud, tliey're dropped as ooe dis- cards A wornout garb that never was himself.

SEA DRIFT. 13

If sacrificed ten thousand thousand times On human altars for utility, Transformed, denied, buried, as slain at last ; Water — spurning decay, with facile might. Redeems its own high birthright, undefiled; Soars up to Heaven, by strong attraction drawn, Descends, expands, fills all the air with life, Pervasively to comfort all who breathe.

A hospitality as large and free As Ocean's world-encircling lavishness Is spread more widely than the solid earth. Old Ocean folds in clasping, softest arms And holds within his heart — where calmness

reigns — Pale, breathless forms that none can number ; Revolving cycles lost all count long since. But men miscall this proffered sanctuary; They clothe a virtue in the garb of vice ; They freight his billows with more obloquy Than ships on Ocean's all-sustaining deep.

Great questions, intricate, of many sides. Bewilder honest men with subtleties; Statutes most clearly framed can be interpreted By straight reversal of their high intent. Sheer Will, aroused, plays judge and jury both. Plain Bible texts serve readings manifold.

14 SEA DRIFT.

Poor souls have stumbled into gloomy caves

Because a neighbor's bushel screened their light,

And active fancy conjures miracles

More wonderful than told in ancient script.

Two children wrangled hotly for possession

Of scissors, born in their small brains ; intent,

Each one, to cut the apron, white, invisible,

For lovely dolly — wholly mythical.

The grown up fancy may outrank the child's.

The things we love are shields; so, Janus- faccd ; Our side defending us with reflex zeal. That waxes hot as we in its defence. Till we and shield alike are jaundice Wued. Each glass is to its allies, surplus zeal. One brain can build more castles, stronger based Than any thousand cunning hands combined ; Building in earth or air ; with art as fine. More subtly beautiful, than Spain's Alhambra's.

Yet each must speak his own deliberate mind, His dearest thought, for ends that suit himself, Let others hear aright or hear all wrong.

SEA .DKII^r. 15

11.

Old, pliant Ocean, in thy massivcness As low and humble as Earth's sandy shores. We come to thee, playmate of trustful men, Sustainer of our frailest venturing crafts ; We come to test thy splendid buoyancy. To shed the cares of life and pluck its joys ; We come, tired children, to the father's arms For pillowed calm as on maternal breast ; We stoutly wrestle, too, with boisterous waves. Grappling with surges of benignant power. Alive with teeming, sheer vitality — Contagion of high health we're sure to catch.

Off hours, we lounge upon the thirsty sands, Thirsting as they for thy cool bath of strength ; Yet more than satisfied with breathing deep The savor sweet and pure, which fills the air From high, uplcaping billows, flashing clear. Long ambient crests, scattering liquid light As meteors break to radiant gems at night ; — These keep thy waters rich with rampant change. The loom that weaves new vigor, still renewed. It scatters wealth of dewy helpfulness

16

.S7{.'/ DKIh'T.

To nnrlnri' far :m(l widi' K-af^rowiiij;" tliini^s — ■ T\\c fool-honiid rliildrcn of llu- ^ralcfiil soil — And l<i'ci)s deal" I'.ailli in ficsli horn pnrilv.

'\\\\ rlivliiiniic lidos, (lie y slnnihtT not nor sloi-p, Likt' (iod's own love — with l)K\sscd risi' and fall. Tilt' slow, iinu'-bi'alinL;; i)ulst* of rosmic life Tlu'v l)rrallu' a i^rcal world ninsic all lluii- own, And move staid lOarlli lo thrill in s\ni])alliy, Low inunnnrini;' melodies in sofi iwsponse, Atlnol) ' allirol) ! in twiseless c\A) and (low, vSyslole, dyaslole, of l)rc\atliini;- sea; And tliy fnll healing" i)nlse is kin to man's. The heart tlnohs of a eommon jo\'ons lifc\

llelpei- and fric-nd of hlind misforlnne's waifs!

l)nll hroki-n tIiinL;s alloal awak(> newborn,

Wave elad afresh in rare and riehesi dyc\s.

Wrecks, stMit adrift in raj^'^ed ni^liness.

( )n lliN' snslainini;' love .i;ro\v hi-anlifnl

As sheen-rohed lishes leapini;" into air.

Willi rainbows i^leamini'; on lluMr speekliMl sides:

Tlu'v add fair i;lory lo llu> fairesi day.

All stravs who pillow li^hlly on thy waves.

!M()ve with Iheir motion, as rider with his steed.

And swav as shadows elian^c wilh ehan^iiiL;'

li-ht. Come storm or sunshine, feci no weariness.

SR/t DRll'T. 1?

CiisliioiKMl and I:ui' riin_i;c(I cradles rock th'cin all 'To sliiiiibcrons <4raccfnl couiilcrfcils of life — Motion and I'csl no lonj^cr two bnl one.

I '|)oii illy lossinj^' billows, idlv |)oisc(l, K'cst l)roodin<;- ships like birds on leafy nests, Swayed lightly lo and fro l)y i)assin,<j^ breeze. Willi folded robes, ibese, coaxin^j;" erranl dreams, As lliou^di all care in life bad fallen on sleep, Slow rise and fall in slninber's deep-brealbed

calm ; And crystal l)nddin^ (lowers float daintily I'Yom prow to stern, — brii^lii leafage of the sea, Sweet lotus blossoms of rare idleness.

Anon wake up the strenuous livinp; souls Of tliese winj^ed sleepers on tby beavin^ breast.

Flinj^ wide abroad wbite plumes of cherubim 1 Move out afar, devouring space on sj)ace Till lost in wide horizon's smiling face! Purpose; and shar]) intent, a,nd victory In every change.

Yet see! they falter, tack, Give U]) llifir rij^lil- line march, as vassals may.

18 SUA /)AV/'T.

Wooing the wind whoso hvinp^ hrcalh they crave lH)r vital air. Ah! challenge faco to face The stroni; wind's hhislerini;". hrave andacity ! Sail on, as clear-eyed castles ily towards lit^ht, l\iL;ht throni^h the piercinj^^ front of conqnered

])ower ! The stnrdiest sonl of enterprise may find His hest laid plans held np hy sea or land; His only hope, reversing fate adverse, And in the teeth of challenge, come to port; So gathering high rewards amhition craves, r.y facing holdly lions of the sea.

Steam-motored, prouder craft, plow ocean's

soil With straighter fnrrows, cut with sharper steel ; And careless, insolent. pnfT towers of smoke — Weak efhgies of heaven's high hanging cUnids — To stain the face of sweet-hreathed crystal day, 'Ihit little leeway gained! their tether holds. Still dragging anchor never yet ontsaikHl. Hallast, the lightest air ship has in store! No swift, new-fangled thing, shall loose itself From stress of social help, close girtled on; Who works alone, works toward his own defeat.

SI'.I DRIl'T. 19

SUtani brcathinj;- pride yd i)ufTs right haughtily : — "Allegiance owe- I not to tyrant winds; On my own way J. move rcsistlessly 1"

Move what? move where? Wlio breaks fra- ternal bonds? Ocean, — without thy help, the llighty steam, No vessel at its back, afloat in air, A nerveless mist, would die as dies iiol llame — Its great ships stranded in a zcjue of calm!

Tribute, all meekly yield thy majesty, And rich and jeweled glory trail astern ; Sowing thy waves with regal diadems; With rivulets of cjuickened, tossing gems That clash and Hash, melting in softened tones. Soft wrai)ped again in mothering placid blue. Silent change falls back to claim ])redestined aid ; Hand h,eli>ing hand, ])igmies like giants thrive.

REST IN MOTION.

Great shijis Imrry East, fast ships hurry West! (irK)d ships on the (x-ean are havens of rest.

%0 SEA DRIFT.

They speed like a lover hope-bound to his love; We rest, as at anchor, the blue waves above!

Old cares may not harp,

No failure to carp, No business, no pleasure to elbow and shove —

To elbow and shove !

Our ship on its way to the uttermost part, We vibrate like branches the wood-zephyrs start ; As steadfast as they in our sea-rhythm swing; Like the hawk sparrow, resting, poised safe on the wing —

We idle and dream,

Watch sapphires agleam, Charmed, listen unharmed, when sea sirens sing;

The sea sirens sing!

The sky overhead is a dome for the gods, The deep blue below laughs upwards and nods ; They are friendly alike, dark azure and pearl, And music is captured in wave dash and swirl;

The bright leap of fish.

Completes every wish, As the onmarching billows white pennons unfurl ;

White pennons unfurl!

SEA DRIFT. 21

In the heart of the storm there is restfulness

here, The voice of the tempest our clarion of cheer ; We ride up to heaven, we gUde toward the earth. And hug cushioned ease for all it is worth;

Right on the ship holds

And safety enfolds, Secure as an infant's awaiting its birth ;

Awaiting its birth !

So we ride through the heavens, at ease in our

place, We look the bright sun from all sides in the face, We carry the moon like a kite on a string, Displacing the stars — old Earth on the wing !

We chatter and smile.

Like lads on a stile ; And our poor little pleasures seem everything;

Seem everything!

Vast purposes, moving with swiftness of

thought, — The idlers half dreaming no changes are

wrought, — Outstripping the lightning, make stars seem to

creep ; But a clear sun is shining when darkest skies

weep.

22 SEA DRIFT.

And the light of the eye Is born in the sky; And so mighty forces work on while we sleep; They work while we sleep.

Taking no burdened thought of life or death, In all thy borders making holiday, Ocean, thy slippery tenants live, rent free. The great-girthed, sportive monsters roll and

leap Through gladsome waves which boil with

answering mirth For these great hoyden children of thy care. Sperm whales, uptossing beakers high in air, Find sport, by harrying monsters of the deep — The dread, fierce Krakens with their scores of

arms. For cousins, blessed with daintier appetites, The small sea midges, gay in dance of death, Sweep down the coaxing currents of whale

breath ; And least becomes the greatest through sea

change. Sea ix)rcupines, sly eels, who shock their prey, Swordfish, well armed and strong, and savage

tribes

SEA DRIFT. 23

As swift of fin as warring birds of wing, Rival all passions of the earth or air.

But argosies, called "men of war," disport In bright and sunny waters; dainty fleets Of living jewels. These, and seagoing birds. And gentler clans, who sail, or leap, or fly, Swift flashing into view in beauty's garb Make kind and homelike, wide, age-treasured

planes Else shifting purposeless in vague unrest; And gentleness holds court in azure fields More charming than elysian emerald groves. Sweet gentleness can always win the palm.

Can one say purposeless? Monotonous, Perhaps, to voyager weary of himself, And blind as mole to piercing blaze of light That might reveal new worlds, urging their

claims ; But purpose brightens face of every wave. And fills the rounded sphere of every drop.

Who skims the surfaces of ocean deeps. Baptismal home of motion's wide unrest, — Motion, greatest, and least, and whole of change, Peopled and quick with mysteries untold — May fail to find the vital soul of things

24 SEA DRIFT.

Patent and beautiful as day itself; Nor catch one gleam of Liliputian life Measured by pulses in pure light itself; Where feeling may awake in vividness Whose satisfactions are commensurate With all the other values in its charming world. One v^^ater droj) can serve a thousand guests ; Then, multiplied, what unique hosts may thrive Unknown mu\ all undreamed by heedless folk! No one has fathomed yet the mystery Of microscopic, brisk and agile life That intervenes in all the coarser worlds, And Ocean its fair Eden of delight.

But life marine, in space to us allied. Sea cousins, tangible if far removed. May teach . us lessons we have faikd to learn. These curious novelties are nuich unknown. Because thou, kindly Ocean, shelterest them In cool, salt-seasoned waters fathoms deep.

Some living things that grace this nether world Are queerest half-made guys, as wonderful As schemes of metaphysics men have made ; Fashioned like nothing grown beneath the sun. Art thou with mother Earth in rivalry For odd and ugly nurselings? Thou hast won. Leviathans and smallest dots of life

SEA DRIFT. 25

Swim side by side, unequal friends or foes ; All equal wards of thine, who shelterest them Impartially, as mothers brood their young.

To us, most beautiful is symmetry; To thee, the need oi it makes love more free ; Crude shapelessness may win some lovelier

guise ! Shallow and small the thought that cannot prize High magnanimity to embryo things Nurtured in covert thy long fostering brings. Poor effigies and lilies of the sea, Sea kings who rule, weak ones who hide and flee, In owing unpaid debts must all agree.

What nameless tribes most coolly breathe and

thrive On thy exhaustless storage of supplies ! And in sheer ugliness ungainly strive. Of every quality, and shape, and size ; Some chained, life prisoners on the rugged

rocks. Who feed — as helpless else as stones and stocks ; And others, life-long, restless wanderers rove; But sheltered all by thy abounding love.

With hooks, with screws, with spears, sword panoplied. In armored scales, cased up in flinty stone,

ae SEA DRIFT,

Bearing rude shields or richuy carved and fine, Or grown all arms and grasping, reaching claws, More hideous these than fancy dares to dream. Some, creatures vague, if flesh or plant, un-

guessed ; To meet the eye of day, too nerveless, some Crumble at sight, like old Pompeian dough; More pulpy soft than boneless marrow these; Those, winged with enterprise to test fresh air, And those mere skeletons, queer frights of wire. Those wearing ribs outside, life locked within — As bone and flesh had interchanged — More shapeless those than pictures children

scrawl, With no more sanity nor less of spleen Than insane draughtsrnen cleverly invent — The old chimeras wandering here alive.

THE UNKNOWN.

If small crude mysteries Breed reverent awe; And strange life histories The wisest subtly draw ; If open eyed our wonder At new undreamed devices — As born of curious blunder.

SEA DRIFT. 27

Yet for the sea suffices,

And if we find there everything

However odd and queer,

Can queerer service bring

To make its purpose clear —

Wliat mysteries great Sea itself may hold,

What more than world-wide purposes enfold,

Waiting thie tand'Cm ages, slowly to be unrolled '

28 SEA DRIFT,

III.

Are eyes by Nature fitted

To light of different kinds? Brain-stuff, in patterns knitted,

To help the various minds; Some wearing glasses blue-tinged.

Others the cheerful red ; These seeking life new fringed,

While those embalm the dead?

Ocean, who calls thee somber, grave and cold ? Man's saddest, sharpest, hateful epithet Is "moaning sea," "the ever-moaning sea" ; — As wrecked on waste forlorn, hopeless, helpless, With none to rescue or assuage his pain. Ocean were but a surging vast of tears, A "dreary," "dark" and "melancholy" sea.

I've heard pathetic grief for human ills. Like funeral music, breathe from whitened lips Of marching waves, en route disconsolate; And in some grievous mood, with lives at stake.

SEA DRIFT. 29

IVe heard them sob as human pity might, Long chanting sadly as they came to shore ; And heard low moaning, as of breaking hearts In rhythmic grief, when mine in silence broke, And learned their tenderness could weep with me.

I've sometimes felt the burden of the world Was borne upon the Ocean's aching breast, Slow floating in and out with every tide. Sweeping in widening circles to the soul Of great unrest, which must the burdens bear Of human sin and woe past human words. Strange mysteries, too dark, have seemed to lurk Within the weary deep and heavy blue; Flapping, like wounded bird, poor weighted wings.

And I have looked when every wave would

kneel To kiss the strand and prostrate wait in prayer; As pilgrims come afar to holy ground; Then, lifting small white hands in thanks and

praise. Would lapse beneath the flood as dear ones lost, While tender voices sang enchantingly And highest Heaven seemed bending down in

smiles.

30 SEA DRIFT.

But I can hear the singing, bounding steps Of billows jocund with the tides of life; Plumed warriors, pressing on to victory, White crests aloft and borne right jauntily; And I have heard a rollicking of mirth Exuberant as laugh of clapping leaves, Their times and numbers as the seashore sands. Again, a blissful, solemn jubilance; As though stray heavenly hosts sang through the

vo'ice Of diamond-ringing joy, their songs divine — ; To ear and eye, vast parables, cheerful ; Encysted love and all beatitudes.

Far oftener I hear clear rising trills, Sweet melodies of half-imprisoned joys That neither ask nor crave release — pure breath And inmost fiber of the soul of peace And joyousness — a pleasant, deep content. The waking swoon of grateful revery, A lingering dream ; not thought nor feeling quite, But both enwrought in one full ecstasy.

Are hearts oft made of kindlier stuiT than thine, Oft moved more readily to each appeal? Will sweet skies always w^eep when we are sad?

SEA DRIFT. 31

And yet we photograph our moods, and stamp Their changing hues on sea, and earth, and sky.. No ears, no sound ; and sight and seen make one.. The ears that note great Ocean's worldless songs,, Interpreting as best they may, must hear Voices as far astray as truth and lies ! Waking and sleep, pray are they near or far? And na. es almost recalled, where do they hide, Waiting on tiptoe for the open door? We all do miss, ah, how unconsciously ! — Kept back by ear-drum buzzing from within — Grand paeans of the sea of many tongues. Some gifted insects, finer voices hear Than wisest men; and wood-taught wildest

brutes Catch deep, low tones to which mankind are deaf. May human vanity lie yet more low !

Great crystal-hearted Ocean, bright of face, I see thee fair, tear-smiling, like a bride. Thy dimples sweet as grow on maiden's cheek ; Rippling, glowing, spreading contagious mirth. Sparkling in clearest jets of holiest glee, While miles and miles of pleasant laughter grow, And golden waves of mist breathe lingering joy ; And sea-weeds, dancing, ring soft chimes of bells Jhe happiest angels might leave Heaven to hean

32 SEA DRIFT.

At eventide, when jubilant with insect mirth, The fire-flies sprinkle lawns with starry flames Which mock sedater stars in heavenly blue, I've seen thee multiply the stars themselves, Each jocund wave repeating sparklingly The whole bright pageant of the world above; Its thousand eyes of solemn joyousness Grown countless millions more of golden smiles Ensphered in thy large hospitality; — And all the sea a shining sea of stars, Dancing with music and with chastened mirth.

And in the fullness of the moon, I've seen Her comely face look beaming up through thine. Alive with roguishness and bright content; And hide and hide again, as children play; Then ris'e, and dropping silver flood from far. Spread wide her silver shield on thy broad breast.

In the glad leap of wavelets' rhythmic plash. Low concerts of the never silent sea, Clear, sweetest melodies, come coaxingly; Cheerful, tender as mother's lullaby ; Softly saying: "He has made us nothing ill. Who seeks it here, shall find a heart of pearl."

SEA DRIFT.

SEA JOY.

Vapor wreaths are nests of laughter,

Sweet and clear; Echoes softly linger after,

Scattering cheer; Every dash of spray is smiling,

Drunk with glee; Moonbeams' clearest light, beguiling,

''Welcome me!"

Plashing wavelets, wavelets kissing,

Rise and fall ; Curves of beauty, never missing

Song's own thrall. Answering back to leafage whispers,

Soft and slow; To the youngest zephyr lispers.

Breathing low.

Molten amber shines and quivers.

Crystal ckar; Heaps of pearls are Indian givers.

Here, not here. Small hands lifted, white and shining,

Woo the air, Beckoning to the high blue ; signing,

"Come and share!"

34 SEA DRIFT.

Ripples flow toci back reflow,

Seas of smiles ; Dimples spread and dimples grow,

Scheming wiles. Sleeping midnight — nothing clangingy

Soft tones press ; Hardest granite cliffs, o'erhanging

Tenderness.

In crispy hbur before the midnight chimes, When round moon beckons slow pervasive clouds', Enchained as by a half-heard melody Sent echoing softly down long corridors. Transforming sweetness into yet more sweet, I watch white spirits spread magician's cloth, In snowy rings that glisten clear, and rest Broad circlets on the soothed and quiet waves. 'Great tidal voices whisper; and the moon Peeps out through clouds, as with a single eye; Draws close the heavy drapery round her head, And leaves the charmed scene just visible — A softened cloud-light hanging broodingly Above the wondering and enchanted world Of land and sea.

Something breathing quickly, I hear low words : — ''Watch now the elfin play !

SEA DRIFT. 35

For lighter, brighter, tricksy folk disport Above the mystic wreathing, weaving flood Than under greenwood trees on slumbering

earth." Spirits of air, of twilight and moonlight, move Like pale reflections, quick with restless joy; The slender ghosts of frost flowers and of dews Wave dainty scarfs with smiling, charming

grace ; And glistening forms rise up from every wave — All weaving in and out, and changing place In vivid, new and lovely pantomime ; — Most winning pageants; dainty wraiths of ours. The flitting shades set free by floating clouds, And ether sprites released by throttling air.

The spellbound fishes rise, agape and gaze; Chained limpets on the rock stretch shining

heads. The crabs and lobsters turn their goggle eyes To wondering mirrors of the charming fete ; And strange sea things, till now invisible. Trail softly to and fro in measured time; And all the waters, all the air above Maintain their wondrous hush protectingly. But now the full round moon looks bravely out. Her face grown large with wonder and delight; The startled clouds retreat; some few pale stars

36 SEA DRIFT.

Look smiling clown; the actors melt away Like earthly sprites at cockcrow ; and the scene Takes back its tumult and its wonted calm. Contrast of light and dark, four-fold Enhances glory of persisting gainful light.

MOONBEAM SONG.

"Loves in Ocean," plead the moonbeams, "Lightly climb our shining stairs;

Welcome waiits you, true as noon-gleams, Clearest, pure ethereal airs, Haunted by no dream of cares.

"Loves in Ocean, thick and heavy,

Daintiest wraiths of crystal brine;

Fairest, mist-robed, dancing bevy

Of sea-folk, be guests of mine! Fair our hills and valleys shine.

"Lightly touch we your dense waters, Each caress almost a blow;

Ocean's lithesome lovely daughters. Climb our smiling silver flow; Like the white clouds, upward go!

SEA DRIFT. 37

"Dream of dreams, our ether ocean, Daintiest robe of purest day ;

Leave your world of rough commotion ! Win the peace of Luna's May, Only queen of heaven alway.

"In the days of Titan rangers,

We were shaken to and fro;

Light and love now welcome strangers ; Silver fountains overflow This rich radiance below.

"Moonbeams swift as falling starlight, Softer than the eye of day,

Venture far as farthest eye-sight,

Come ! Along the sweet blue stray !

Lighted smiles point out the way."

THE REPLY.

"Coaxing, white-robed moonbeams," answers, sighing, Voice of tender pathos from the sea ; "To climb your silver stairways, means quick dying,

To mine and me.

38 Sn.t DRIFT.

"Wc caiinol l)rc\'itlio c^arth's sunny atmosphere?

]^>llicr-l)rcatliinL;' would alas, how soon I Straininq' onr coarser snhstancc thin and clear, Ovcrllow the moon !

"Earth's swicetest wooin^^ air hends softly over, Sii^hinq-, wins onr (rust, and lends us wings; But too venturesome sea-disloyal rover, Back here he brings.

"Swinginc;- breeze, and foam, and lunmlt, love we,

Roll and toss of never-resting sea; Swift through briny surges, battling, move we. Joyous and free.

"I'riends of all the reckless uncouth creatures

(^lid^ing, hiding, tumbling everywhere; We should miss tluMr ugly homelike features, Miss the life we share.

"Sea-])1ight damsels, frankly, kindly meet you;

Wave proud (HH\an-welc(^tne. sons of light; Moon-white feet steal shyly out to greet you, Dancing to-night.

SEA DRIFT. 39

"Cheer and welcome always, moon-bright visitors ! Your quicksilver joy, and presence fine, Make friends, and more than willing servitors, Of me and mine/'

MOONBEAMS' SACRIFICE.

"Loves in Ocean," sigh the mo<:»nl)eams, "Since yon may not come to us,

We forget our softest Lune-dreams For a love thai welcomes thus ; Tossing sea waves, welcome us !

^'Winds and billows, wild and roughened Strengthen daintiest venturers here!

Hardier sea kin, aged and toughened, Bid us moonbeams banish fear! Clearest light may grow more clear.

"Clothe us now in your strong raiment ;

Silver bright we'll gild the Main ; Give us back in generous payment.

Reborn life on ocean plain !

When we die, we live again.'*

40 sh.i nk'iir.

Kvcry i\ccd so ilono in kiiuliu'ss,

Brii;liUMis sea aiul land t'oi tuo; •

Civiii in lovt" aiui not in hliiuliu'ss, l>v a piKH'K'ss alilu'iuv. Turns all clioss io sjoKl lor Ihcc.

\

(ihul ( >cc'an. sparklini; like Ihe Mue abiwc With i;oKUMi evos of shininj;- pure tlolii^lil. Thy clarkrsi nii;lils aro li«;hloil with the ^low or llainos iiiihimuHl ; lit up hy swanuinj;" hosts ^Vho hiiK- heliitul their separate iu>thinL;ness In hanks i>l" spKiulid livinj;' ine. Thev'te like the rank atul t'lle o\ luinian kind. Horn l>ul oi low estate, searee reekoned with. No voiet> oi wcMi;ht. they eaeh may he sneeretl

(Knvn ; I'lit massed in strength, ilemandinq I'ull-voieeil

elaim If rii^'ht or wiom; not p^vwers nor potentates. Nor laws, nor eonrts. nof wisdoni. dare withstand Coneise tletnand of handed multitudes!

(irtnvn sovereign now, hy one eiMuhinin*;' will T1k\v sweep ohst met ions fiom the opeti path And turn (he luidnii^ht (hal haek to iuhmi ; So shadows tlee hefore these shoals of tlanio ; The darkness lau_i;hs in daneini; jnhilanec

SEA DRIFT, 41

Of torches borne by sea-bred will-o'-wisps, Who vaguely Hash their eheerful mysteries.

As {(He reveries eonie and ^o unwilled, There! toward the south! framed elear within

the gloom, Wrapped up as in transparent subtle flame, Outlining him from head to lowest fin, A monarch of the sea swims leisurely ; And far away, now lost, now found, great beasts Like rooting swine, seem wallowing in light — jJarkncss of sky soft lighted 1)y the sea. When movement stirs the dull and sleeping

waves, They wake in sea-born stars ; our good shi])'s keel 'Cuts long thick slices from the milky way That bands and brightens far the laughing sea.

Thy wildest mustangs, in full tournament Of shoreward rush, piebald, with streaming

manes. Are not more picturesque and far less weird. Are opal days of sunshine more entrancing? Are curtained noons of shade and sliine, Now moods, now sparkles gleeful as child's

laugh. Now doubled visions, cloud born in blue sky?

42 SEA DRIFT.

When weary of the day-Hght joys and cares, I steal away to breathe a seaside peace ; The halcyon day, while mother birds are brood- ing, Folds round me dim and sleepy crooning night. Pillowed in comfort on the clean washed sand, I hear the clear high tinkling of real mirth, Like liquid breath of flutes, shot through and

through The dash and solemn roar of rising tides.

Listening entranced, the joyous rippling trills Of singing birds are born in clinking drops, Beating sweet song against their harp of rocks. Are the^e soft liquid tones, now low, now shrill. The pattered lullaby of rains? clear chimes Of ringing bells? the far-off low of kine? And calling bleat of silly straying sheep? The ocean voices, rich in mimicry — Or native speech of changing tuneful waves? Is ocean mirror both of sights and sounds, Its life responsive to all life of change? The tramp of hurrying feet on city streets Blended and punctured as with liieavy points; The measured tramp of armies on the march, Are each repeated In the endless tread Off serried waves in stately onward sweep.

SEA DRIFT. 43

Massed waters mock the thunder's lengthening

roll, And human voices, toned to softened cadences. Find clever, plain reminder in sea speech; And far off wasted symphonies of earth, How subtly caught, are copied wondrously. Does Nature's whole great orchestra Prolong its life within the echoing sea? Or do a tliousand ocean voices breathe A wealth of feeling born of sentient life — Broad Nature one in generous inmost heart?

Glad waves are blue-green foliage of the sea, Fair, crested white with blooms of crowning bliss. As face to face looks up from silent pool, Earth's best and worst, farces and tragedies. Pictures of this but half sunlightcd world, Are held in replica in Ocean's heart Of facile, faithful, limitless response. If we could read full tcx^s in water stored. Accepted and preserved in Nature's script; Her fine and sure economies revealed, Her shadowed purposes of high intent ; These must unfold a wise and structural wealth. Held sacred ; shrined in ocean smiles and tears.

44 SEA DRIFT.

Mankind should kneel to thy beneficence, Vast duplicate of heaven's own cheerful blue; The world's protecting girdle, amber pure And fair; the infinite made visible..

SEA DRIFT. 45

IV.

Ocean, more changeful than the wandering winds, For moods more fitful than caprice of clouds. For brave rich song in lapse of kindling waves, And glorious symphonies in rush of tides; For every ripple laughing up to heaven And sobbing its own loss in music's voice; For tossing bubbles breaking soft in laughter ; For bands of color, rich in shaded blues And bright chameleon changes, many hued — In sunshine all aglow, asleep in shade ; — For hurrying drifts of foam, whose lingering

clasp Breaks out in air- fed blooms of snowy wealth ; For billows fleet of foot, hoar white of head. Leaping like goat-herds over gray old rocks That rise to drive them back, and hold the land ; For hints of deep and solemn mysteries, Great unknown ways all these cannot reveal ; For every wile of daring changefulness — But lace and ribbons fluttering in full dress, The changing play of age-long steadfastness

46 SEA DRIFT,

For all of these we freely give thee love, By thy entrancing held in willing thrall.

Are dearest songs we know more' changeful

sweet Than Ocean's wordless, thoughtful melodies? Are land-nursed, charming, fruitful, blithesome

moods — - Of growth, of autumn glow, and fall of leaves. And lovely carven shapes of ripened fruits? Or winter's interlacing lifted boughs. Adding their beauty to the rarest sky? Are all of these ten thousand precious gifts Of loves and treasures, dear to dear old Earth — Fair flowers, staid mountains, and lithe moving

forms Alive with joy, and hope and energy — Are these more rich in keen vivaciousness Than Ocean's changes, never patented. Nor ever twice the same, and never stale?

One only pities him who cannot find Unending rich enjoyment in them all; He lives estranged from gentlest kith and kin The sympathy of life, its poetry, Are volumes still unopened or half closed.

SEA DRIFT. 47

Ocean, thy friendliness spans all the world, Giving fresh, breezy handshakes to all lands ; Far stretching on to every land-wooed cove, And bearing tides of blessing to them all. The pleasant Earth and all that is therein Would be but flying dust, to thee unwed.

In curve of beauty, blended with the sky. Which drops its splendid arch the full half way Along the line of close fraternity — The circle of closed love to ravished gaze — Yet thou art ready for the lightest play That claims thee its sustaining providence ; And almost too responsive to the calls Of tricksy winds who make and mar thy fame. Since all the powers coequal partners are. They justly merit praise alike and blame; Yet now we lift our psalm for thee alone. Transient and permanent, full-orbed great sea, Best type of both identity and change.

THE SHORE.

It is good to stand on a lonely shore,

Where winds are free to whistle and sweep,

When waves mount high and the billows roar And echo broods over the briny deep.

48 SEA DRIFT.

Dun picturesque hosts on the heavenly blue, Intent on their mission of reckless might,

The marshallini;- clouds £2^0 hurrying;- througih, Sweeping" in liasto to the zenith of night.

Contagion of frcoilom ! More wiUl and more blessed.

Our dreaming exultingly sweeps the sky ; And nestles outworn in th<? stars for rest,

Overawed bv visions too mighty and hioh.

Ocean is patron of a jovial crew Who hail the cloud-capped moon with jeers or

cheers Like watch dogs' bay, of most uncertain sound. That keys each wondering ear to mystery.

One climbing moinitains, drags up leaden feet. Made light as cork in face of landscajie spread Far down beneath, in beauty glorified ; And so one wakes to niooils of freakish winds.

The hooded demons of tde iL)ree7y night, ]\Tcre flighty wisj^s, stretcbi up to giant heights. Then shrink to puny dwarfs, just visible. Out-doing little Alice in her wonderland.

SEA DRIFT. 49

Blithe night at every port — puppets half real, Half shadows of the real — has no true peer In brisk, uncertain, piping revelry. Phantoms — now beautiful as dawn, now frights The sea folk try to screen from lawless gaze — Gray-draped and fleet of foot ; odd, lissome

shapes ; All tread the checkered moonbeams warily. At bo-peep, lipfhft and shade slip in and out Like needle in and out of stocking foot ; Now lost, now quickly found in other guise. Mailed shoulders flashing bright like burnished

steel ;— As ghosts of armies, reconciled, clasped hands, And bowed and waved in stately amity.

Yonder, the bolder comers whirl and skirl In leaps of reckless maddened fantasy. How royally they spring from crest to crest Of piled up whiteness over chasms dark, Like startled kids from mountain crag to crag! Great roaring giants come, reach out long arms Across the night, and spread their fluttering robes Until they veil the sky and all the stars. Are these the ancient cheerful gods returned For glimpses of the moon who hides her face, Yet peeps anon to see if all is well ?

50 SEA DRIFT.

The sea and air take hands and draw more close To whistling loud and merry of the winds ; The crested mountains rise, leaping with joy, And fling wdiite foam as winter piles up snow To light the over-darkened scenery ; And gazing clouds, to mark their sympathy, Flash rapid signals in a code of light That comes unread and melts out silently.

Chorus of reeds and rushes breaks in sound Along the shore which answers song with song: And ever}^ stiffened grass-blade sways in tones Diverse, blending in shrill and high accord. Old Pan and his wild followers have come To heighten music's sea-born revelry ; And land and sea make one vast orchestra. Triumphant motion sw^eeps from shore to sliore, Strong billows whitening wiith the frost of age.

Tired school boys, long imprisoned at their

desks, Wriggle and twist all devious ways at once — Each rounded limb a separate moving screw, Kept w^inding contrawise in keen revolt; So, in the land-locked bays or far at sea, Wlien fair skies smiled, and cloudlets hanging

high

SEA DRIFT. 61

Were lent thee in sweet duplicates — comfort and

cheer — And with small sea birds rested peacefully On kindly waters, fairer than their wont ; Ocean, I've seen thee move and counter move In countless acres of a huge unrest ; As straining muscles, clutched by unseen might, Subdued, were prisoned by a thousand cords. Are quiet, peace and beauty, sedatives? And reckless stir of life a wholesome goad Even when it hurts and wounds us ruthlessly?

When wildest holiday of sport begins, When gladdened sea folk roll and leap and dive, When imps of pricking mischief rule ana reign, Then, plunging headlong into boisterous feats, The mightiest waters loosed from hard restraint. All jovial voices piping jubilee, Motion itself grown mad with merry change ; Great billows surge in rampant eagerness To snatch their foaming drafts of zestful life ; Huge waves are winged with tempests ; unknown

deeps Of thy stirred soul rise high in ecstasy; Chaos of winds and waters reigns supreme.

From these mad tumults, dangers manifold, Health picks its flowers of safety, guaranteed.

52 SEA DRIFT.

SAILOR SONG.

Great cross-winds are battling for triumph to- night.

Their mighty fists pounding the sea with dehght ;

And the waves, striking back with a dash and a roar.

Water-dust fills the air, like a dry threshing floor ;

My steed prances gaily, and welcomes the fray,

And we are a part of the tempest at play.

The gazing stars laughing and shaking their

heads, Bright fish leaping up from their wind-shaken

beds, White foam-horses rearing like mustangs un-

broke, Bowing low to the billows our mast of stout oak, Black rain clouds approaching on wings of the

night, And darkness devouring the children of light;

Press onward, my fleet one, of strong, willing

feet! Right on through the wiave-lifts, r'ide into the

sleet !

SEA DRIFT. 53

The full moon still peering, wild winds whistling

high, They cheer our dash onward to calm by and by ; But better we love the loud ''yo heave !" and toss Of the sharp clashing billows, with sword blades

that cross!

Swift into the black lift and under the sleet, Plunge onward, my beauty, with glad, willing

feet; Dip deep in the sea foam thy glistening shrouds, And gay as the bird flies, mount up to the clouds; Lean backwards, careening to waters below, Careering in triumph, as onward we go.

Plunge into sea mountains, drive on through

the sleet. No wetter, my best love, but ever more fleet; The live hills beneath us are running a race, The full moon is baffled and black in the face; But onward wc dash in the teeth of the gale, And the frown of the sky, wliiose starry eyes fail !

Sailors all love thee most in boisterous moods. When reckless tumult claims thee for her own — Thy amethysts and sapphires, charcoal turned.

54 SEA DRIFT.

And steel-blue sword-blades drawn and flashing

free; As skillful sea folk were at deadly war, And life and peril working way together. But gallant lads at home, crave too thy gifts Of versatile renown. Gently, for these Repel — with kindly waves ! The mother's heart Is almost broken when her missing boy Has left her clinging arms for love of thee. Yet mothers, too, leave choicest sheltered homes To stroll along thy shores in roughened winds, And salted spray, and roar, and restlessness. And wondrous charm of rising, falling tides ; Eager to share thy moods and live thy life — The fascination all too sweet and strong For murmuring at rude discomforts shared.

How many loving hearts have yearned for thee As trees reach up for sunshine's bath. As insects struggle up from chrysalis To wings, and light, and life-sustaining air! Most fervent many lovers thou canst win, And hold in lively bonds of sympathy Which time nor distance makes less consecrate !

SEA DRIFT. 55

ON THE SANDS.

A little child sat on the clean shore sand,

His new wooden spade in his small brown hand ;

He was digging a well on the beautiful strand.

Three slender gay sandpipers trotted about, With the pearl of the waves they chased in and

out, On wee spindle legs that will never grow stout.

Two fishhawks were floating high up overhead, Their pointed gray wings great banners out- spread ; And one darted down like an arrow new sped.

A butterfly drifted along like a leaf, Lighted shyly a moment, tired out, on a reef, Then fluttering inshore saved his life — ^all too brief.

Western sun burns dim through a golden haze That catches and tangles full half of his rays, Down slanting the rest for an Eastern blaze.

Soft and balmy the air, and every breeze Has an August languor and love of ease. That captures the senses on evenings like these.

66 SEA DRIFT.

Small Willite has wandered an hour on the beach, Many treasures has found, most wonderful each ; And they all lie marshalled within his reach.

The ocean tumbles and falls at his feet, Its clamorous voices grow softer and sweet. As a queer old legend it seems to repeat.

"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,

Columbus sailed on the ocean blue,

And he found a world that was strange and new.'*

The child, g'azing- eagerly over the main, Saw a far-off land that he knew was Spain ; And the queer old ships; they were there quite plain.

Splendid ships and brave! Spanish flags hung

high, White bellowing sails uprose on the sky ; And he knew that the venturesome quest was

nigh.

Then there blossomed in beautiful shining light — Growing right on the sea, to Willie's delight, — Whole acres of roses, golden and bright.

SEA DRIFT. 57

Tlicy covered the slii])s, the llc'i<;s and llie land, They grew in the sky till it glowed like a hrand ; The startleil boy murmured, *T don't under- stand 1"

lie opened his eyes and looked timidly round ; Was the broken moon there, and right on the

ground ? He could not wait now till his treasures were

found.

But he ran like a deer and (Micd to mamma

(Wiser than Solomon she was by far) :

''Why did the moon shoot and burn like a star?"

THE PLkJULSCITE.

In torrid months, when Sol pours steely beams, Like barbed arrows shot in burning gleams. The overwhelming verdict would be foimd : "Seaside preferred to all the wide earth's other ground."

A scattering would vote for mountain heights, Just ''killing something" one of man's delights, And Midas kings, who karn to write in gold, Give preference to "Wall Street" whiether hot or cold.

58 -V/'V/ nh'ii'T.

Nice, j^onllo women, linj^^iiij^ dear lioiiic walls, 'I liey would not lu'cd our f(K)lish modern calls; lUit yoiilliful beauty, .and yoniif^ enerj^y, Would jj:ladly vote twice over, both times for the sea.

And tbey wbo bi'ar tlie brunt of honest toil, Would suJTra^e cast for restful wave- washed

soil ; The overmasteriu}^ verdict rinj^in^ true, 'Give us siunmer outinj^s beside the wide free bluer

The pale, siiek p^irl would pve soft joys of life lM)r purest draught of healinp^ seasi<le breath; And old men, palsied with the weipht of years, Refuse to die till near thee once aj^ain. Ah. thou hast won a human loyalty, Almost as wide as thy beneficence. And heavy eyes lij^ht up at sip;ht of thee As pebbles brij^hten with the kiss of waves. Thr fcNcred brain, when lost to all thinj^s else, Will babble of iby cooling', salt sea air

SUA DRII'T. 59

So ^(Hn\ (() brcailiic — tlixii" of new life;

Swt.'('l wind lliat l)Iow.s sick tohwcbs from llin-

mind ; 'I lie Ionic N.'ilnrc slill renews, and holds in lier exhaustlcss store, for all who srek. In dreams, one sees hri^hl walers Mash on shore And turn a^ain relnelanlly, east down 'I'hat none are here to revel in their joy ; ()ne hears sea-voices nuninnr pleadinj^ly, And he^s them lay him in Iheir coolinj^ .irnis, Jdiat he may rise at morn his s(ren}.;lh rencwe(I.

In dre.ams, one rich in lieallh, lonj; miles inland, rillowed on eider down, in shaded |)eac-e. Can hear the eclioinj; ninsic of the sea, And feel the slnml)rons rockinj.; of the waves, riacid and genial in sw<'et moods of calm ; Slirrin;^' as Scottish l)a^j)i|)e, in the wind; And even dreaminj.; thus, adds lirallh lo health, Willi joy in rich and hice/.y seaside life. And wakinjj;-, ])ilotcd hy saner thonjj;^ht, Retnrn to visions dear and charminjj; once, Is twofold sweeter as they beam a^^ain, liri^'^htened, softened, drawn closer each with e.K h And made more nei}.;hhorIy than in their yonlh.

A mystic paj^eant rises fa< in;.; ( lilf Hanging above an endless woild oi walers.

60 SEA DRIFT.

rVoiii far away, where sea and sky are one,

A t^^rowing silver plant seems blossoniinj;-.

Now, crescent light climbs np. till round full

moon Grows clear at;ainsl the higher, smiling blue. Dappled with cloudlets in new robes of white; A sea of silver Hoods the eye and lueart With sheen so beautiful there's no forgetting.

Another picture claims its welcome jilace ; A glorious hilltop Hanked with neighboring hiills, Slux^p-cropped and bare; uplifted to the sky Til charming rounded forms, hill piled on hill, luicircling these, the Ocean ; in the West, Its winding inlets broaden into lakes Almost beneath our feet. The setting stm, First drojiping golden sparkles that reb(^iuul And startle us with shining mazy dance, I'he little ripples burning with delight; Then throwing (^ut a solid bridge of gold iM-om water's v(\i^v to edgc^ — sky wed to earth T?v this wide band of sympathy Seems birthj-jlace of a new earth glc^rified ; And suddenly, the clouds, as witnesses, Light up like scattered rainbows, soft of tone; While all the many sleeping waters near Kepc>at the miracle of colored joy In tenderness; copies more dainty fair

SEA DRirr. G\

Than sky's originals. Old Ocean beams, llis deep, great anlluin grown more nuisical.

Memories crowd for ])lace: A long gold line Tracking its silent way tlircjiigli evening shades, Along a darkened sleeping hay, for miles ; The onward How of rich imhroken light, A tril)nte of one lighted heacon tower, — More golden bright than wings of bntterHies To beauty's world ; — a sea of molten gold In flitting i)lay, like burning window panes, The still light turned to moving life By magic dance of gentle rippling waves.

Then, seascape of a thousand purple shades Commingling and enhaneing richest dyes, The sea and sky exchanging courtesies So intimate eaeh seems the other's self — Upon the one a little lloek of birds, At home and restfnl as the floating sheen. And in the other, birds on wing; the sky To them as homelike as the purple waves — One harmony, one rounded sphere of sight.

Sharp elbowing this lovely, joyous ealm ; Enchanted, like tihe ri])pling song we liear; A hasty tempest with its ront and roar, Its jangle of great waves in inky black,

62 SEA DRIFT.

And we, atoss between the sea and sky!

The fiying ship, a ball for giants' play

Who yet pay high rewards in proud display

Of majesty, reckless in sharp retort;

Swift lightnings wake the solemn thunder's voice,

And shattered clouds roll by in wondrous pomp.

Close on the heels of wrack — on peaceful blue, A full-rigged ship stands out, white sails afloat, Its keel above, its mastheads dipping down To greet the wondering sea's uplifted gaze — The graceful fairy waif upon the sky As well content as on the placid sea — A thing of beauty and "3. joy forever," Uplifting soul to mirage of its own.

Bright memories that clearer grow with time Become the open windows to a vanished past Through which we look and recreate young joys, Alight with splendors of the rising sun ; Distance enchanted. In the roseate glow Kindled on mountain peaks of joys and hopes Half realized, a rich prophetic more Burns in with warmth that quickens autumn's

pulse. Life's mansions have exhaustless stores of wealthy And heart can nothling crave it may not win.!

SEA DRIFT. (J3

DOLCE FAR NIENTE.

When skies rain heat and still airs grieve, Our longing hearts to Ocean cleave,

Drawn on by love through many a rood ; There, sparkling ripples raise clean hands ; And voices pure as high commands,

Breathe hope, and praise, and gratitude.

Sea's little children, newly found — Hand-clasping dimples — wander round,

Embodied dreams in cheerful mood, And babes of foam laugh thanks to God — No play so light, staid Earth has trod —

No tribute paid more true and good !

Ignoring care and all that crew, They babble on in language new.

Rare fancies feed on mystic food ; Thought, wandering with the eye afar, Looks through where sky lets down its bar,

And burdened lives forget to brood.

When grand high tempests rage, and swift as

light Come battling winds ; when angry billows sweep

64 SEA DRIFT.

From shore to shore ; when surging waters rise To great and awesome heights, as earthquake

born; And all the fountains of the mighty deep Are broken up, and sound is magnified Until it rends the dome of heaven in twain ; And hurtling spears of flame strike through and

through 'ine heart of night, as slaying monstrous wrong; And darkness swallows sea, and earth, and air; Then heart of puny man may hide in fear, Or lift itself in awe of power uncurbed.

The elemental forces missiles hurl Against each other, mad to overthrow All dynasties except their own, and shake The staid foundations of the universe ; But God's great mandate firm has grounded them In ever banded strong fraternity. To slay one's neighbor is to slay oneself.

The awful majesty of deathless might Becomes more sane, and angry rising heights Of piled up waters face the bending skies. Content to execute unknown behests. The lifting up of ocean's voice in tones Which long reverberate, calls back the world To great suggestions-, strange, unutterable;

SEA DRIFT. 65

And thoug^ht flies far beyond thy utmost bound To greet more vast embodiments of power — All these but fringe upon His garment's hem Who holds the winds and waters in His hand.

Soon clear- faced, holy calm returns; more sweet For awful grandeurs past, more beautiful. The hushed and sun-kissed sea, cradled in light. And lulled in music, murmurs dreamily.

66 SEA DRIFT.

Ocean, in thy iinfathomed, caverned deeps, Where wavelcss stilhiess Hes, and silence broods, The reverent sea perennial sabbathi holds — Chanc^^e overawed by calm and sheltered peace. Half shades that waver, foster pale distrust; But settled night breathes deep serenity, As all the gi^ods knelt doAvn in silent prayer.

Broad nature balance holds of light and dark, One arm weighed down by rayless density, And one, fair freighted with white smiles, aloft. The pointing hand of sovereign day in banish- ment, Eyes were superfluous here for living things If gifted rangers did not sometimes pierce The hooded night with cheerfulness. And make the solemn darkness visible. Here free and large all hospitality. Healthful and clean as sun-warmed vital air — Each weed as nicely wrought as sunniest bank of flowers.

SEA DRIFT. 67

Within thy locked abysses, house-room giver, Are many mansions never yet unveiled, Where cotmtless tribes abide and eat thy bread. And, ever prudent, breathe thy breath, And win from fruitful waters all they crave. Anchored to earth, these wait the gifts thou

bring'st. Nor lift the raven's cry; these clasp the rocks As trustingly as babe its mother's breast ; These swim serenely through the densest floods With heavy homely poise and dignity ; These creep, or hide in basement sands — content Commensurate with thy deep gravity.

All love thy calm, as insects moving winds, Finding no hindrance in full quietude ; But clothe them in thy sable smooth attire. More proud than flunkies in gay liveries. As we on stable Earth, soft days they pass. At ease upon thy many-storied floors, folded in silken sheets, nor feel the weight Of thy tall columned pillars overhead, No more than we our pauseless flight through

space. Jlere live vast hosts no false ambition drives. The chartered lowly ones, who fear no fall. Who wear the lightest or most ponderous shields

r>8 siLi DRirr.

More easily than tiionarchis' sliiniiii;- crowns, INIcotini;" staid ilostiuN in donso rc^pdso.

Small cov:\\ wovkcvs build tcnvards tippor wdrlil. And sca-i;ri\ii kolp outrcaclios riMnmcd arms. SoarcliinL:" for lij^lit and air; hut tlnivino- liordes In tlicir sun-world of Iciii^tluMunl silences And ancient nii^'lit — whore time n(^ measure has. And primal darkness knows not liidil is l)om — Find i^M'ateful rest in their i^rim f.istnesses. Good sheUered folk, they joy to live and die Tn staid familiar haimts where life lH\i;an ; No rampant hope to break dame Nature's bondr., Conrtint;* no kinships grainier than their own. ('"ravini:^ no i;ift from out tliis upper world. They never rise to _i;reet the morm'ui;- sun. Nor wonderini;- ask ov ilreani of starry vaidt — Their stars content in life's allotted spheres. Ts frettinj;- pride o{ hii;her tyj^e than these? Or black ambition mcMc commendable? A fish at home is peer of prince or king.

On stony shores above, qfray sands move up: Ron<;h pebbles roll themsidves to ronnd and

smcH'ttb. Voov sand-lleas antl brii^ht wavelets leap response To thud of asking' voices never still;

SfiA DRII'T. 00

And nK'ks. tii)liravcMl by siir^nn^- l)illows, cl'iiin The liij^lur levels. All things Uhtc aspire; Harsh sand ^nains jjrondly rise in stiffened reeds, Their suppler ehildren, ereepin^^ up inshore, Grandchildren urge to softer, liner blades.

Inland, pnr(> restlessness seeks hurried dianj^^e; Untimely buds burst, rashly into llower. blowers (|uiekly rotnid to fruits, as ehildren grow, And trees, tied fast; that, always nuirinuring, And proudly liflini; high llkir new erowned

Iwads, Wave envious greeting to the thoughlful s-lars.

NOTHING RESTS.

The restless birds niii;:ratc Jiaeh autunni and spring;

1 he meanest grubs emulate Butterlly's wing.

Plunging headlong below, Running raees all day,

The mountain rills How, Away, far away!

70 SEA DRIFT,

On silver lake's edge, The green cresses dance

From gay growing sedge, Sharp little eyes glance.

The meadow brooks watch, And, changing their wiles.

Bright lily blooms catch In pictures and smiles.

Fair blossoms hold up In smooth velvet hands,

The sweet drinking cup For gauze-winged bands.

The wind rushes by, The field daisies sing,

Busy bees haunt the sky, Gnats live on the wing.

Great sun and moon rove. Clouds wander all day;

And all the stars move In grand roundelay.

SEA DRIFT, n

Down here, the ocean pulse craves rhythmic

peace Year after year. The rocks and mountains stand Deep wrapped in monkish cowls and dreamless

sleep ; Grim types of Patience on Time's monuments ; Nor grief-wan smiles light up these changeless

realms, Where water, firm as marble, stands upright In solid blackness, fixed in midnight watch.

Frail, tiny shells, small shields of boneless mites. The old sea's treasures, slowly dropped to earth, And all untainted by the blight of time, In piled up peace for their successors wait. And welcome them with age-long gratitude; Through father Adam, in his early bed. And men before the flood, as formless dust. Ignore the coming in procession full. Rank after rank of their posterity. Here, everything that dies, or but endures. To earthward tends, drops softly to the ooze Where primal old Bathibius reigns and sleeps In windless, waveless, dark, cold, silent world.

7a SEA DRIFT,

EVERYTHING RESTS.

Lap of waves and all deep breathing",

Changeless night Stills; as mothers hush the grieving

Child of light.

Surface tumults thick outwalling,

Fathoms deep, Silence fallsi, as sunbeams, falling,

Fade and sleep.

Stealthy foes in utter stillness

Thrust and parry; Nothing dares with crying shrillness

Silence harry.

Passive, uneventful leisure,

Brooding ease; Ocean ground floor, rich in treasure,

None will seize.

In thje pathos of long midnight,

Life a calm, Flame of living venturing rush light

Breeds alarm.

SEA DRIFT. 73

Deep sea folds its wordless blessing

Round its sphinx; Wordless, kneeling awe expressing

All she thinks !

The shaping touch of Ocean's water world Moulds forms and senses fitted to itself. What's best or worst on life's enjoyment scale? And which outweighs, content or discontent? Millions of curious forms lie sprawling here In peace, like baskers in the sunshine's glow; And battles rage as hotly in dumb show As with the roar of musketry above — For simpler, who shall say for baser ends? Are these malign, like higher hate and greed? The viler traits may be evolved with loss !

Nor have we fathomed all of deep sea life Where darkness wraps its mysteries More close than light beyond our farthest ken; Who dares a limit draw in face of truths The wisest call insoluble; when, lo! In twinkling of an eye, they stand revealed.

Does compensation find its 'customed place In cold sea -Hades? Can warm brooding thought

74 SEA DRIFT.

Here incubate long waiting mysteries?

An eye whose light is in itself, unfolds

A world of romance and sublimest truth!

Can Ether — bond between the mighty worlds- —

In all the tenuous fullness of vast space,

Have vivid feeling? living occupant?

If not, what dreary wastes shall profit give

To universe of friendly helpfulness !

Then do thy spaces, Ocean, throb with hope?

And pleasant cheerfulness? and perfect trust?

And water world a world of blessedness?

And may the lowly children of the deep, 'Mid the long quietude of their abode, By slow progression rise to high estate. Unhindered; helped by their environment? Reflection is most blessed in stillest peace. And sleep's bright dreams oft kindle waking joys.

IS THERE A BEST?

The strenuous life of thought With high endeavor wrought; The vision far and clear, The insight of the seer,

SEA DRIFT. 75

Rich joys of noble hue, Oncoming fresh and new, Are very, very beautiful.

But peaceful, pleasant joy, Content with sweet employ; Calm good in ample store, Striving for nothing more ; Feelings filled up to brim With homely song and hymn, These too are fine and dutiful.

A lingering savagery appeals to war. Transplanting grievous pandemonium With all its wounding, horrid cruelties When it would stir a torpid commonwealth. Or find an outlet for sharp discontent. Or satisfy the futile restlessness That finds no better aim. Insensate greed Will conquer provinces. But Nature spreads Above, below, through all her borders wide, A table full enough to meet all needs Supplying only wholesome appetites. Down here, variety is infinite, And sentient life need find no dreary reali^i In this her nursery for infant sleep And muscle-building new activities.

76 SEA DRIFT.

And protean Ocean, since thou'rt sovereign

king, Can mirth and jests and merry sport find place In thy Plutonic realm? Dame Nature jokes In our white world ; she clothes her purest glee In forms grotesque and faces ludicrous. The laugh-provoking, craziest things proclaim A fellow feeling warms her heart and ours. Queerest thoughts get stereotyped in flesh and

plant With lavish hand. Life gives to thee odd fish; As half afraid to face the telltale light With her most humorous bizarre conceits.

Is deep sea moral gravity too dense For wholesome fun and genuine merriment? Or dost exceed our daylight joviality, And compensate thy children of the night, Making at times blank darkness jubilant?

More things invade thy anchored water world Than dreamed of yet in our philosophies; Than found out yet by all our sciences. The plants all germinate in darkened soil ; Yet many reach more near to Heaven than man

himself. The noblest human forms, once potter's clay.

SEA DRIFT. 77

Now tread their own descendants 'neath their

feet. All infant lives awake from dreamless sleep.

In thy hushed corridors are dying moans The germs of speech in growth? May sound

wake up In clean-washed, purer voice, to liquid sweetness We have never heard?

There are strange vales Long fathoms deeper than our sunshine falls — The cheerful day barred out by moveless black — Vales light with glory, swift and wandering. Soft lightnings flash, or smile with lambent

tiames ; For curious light-producers, richly dowered, Envied by gods and men, can send clear beams Across the night and make her startled shades Shrink timidly, affrighted and subdued; And strange sea creatures, dazed, look face to

face In quick and awed surprise of novelty.

78 SEA DRIFT,

LIGHT.

To all who live where shadows fall Light's clear handwriting on the wall

Shines fitfully; But day will surely triumph yet, And over all her beacon set,

For land and sea.

The eye of day, the eye of soul, Pure light illumes in growing whole,

And bids us look; The crumpled leaf she opens wide, The crimson deed she will not hide.

Nor close life's book.

She makes the darkness clearly seen ; Then slays it, as it had not been.

And takes its place; For all things shines a smiling sun, Teaching the blindest where to run,

What wrongs to face.

Uncalendared are all mysterious ways. Thy deep sea wards are queerly dowered in traits

SEA DRIFT. 79

No mortal would have dared to thiink the best, But somehow gained by odd capriciousness, To children handed down not much improved ; As ocean owned a vast ''Pandora's box" And caught at marvels as they made escape. Mankind, not less than they, accept of legacies ; But gain unique surpassing benefits Rising like mountains over lowly hills; But here the generations drift unchanged, Their Adams portraiits of their younger sons.

DEEP SEA RESIGNATION.

Then are they so contented?

The tribes of clawing idlers, Have none of them resented

That they are only sidlers?

The poor things forced to scuttle Or be themselves digested;

May not they envy Cuttle With inky gifts invested ?

Rich Shellfish in their houses May rouse a naked rancor.

Or slugs, without good blouses,

For horns and great swords hanker.

80 SEA DRIFT.

When fatal war i« raging,

The strong ones punching, slamming; The invalids and aging

May take it out in cramming.

Wrigglers might hate the sw'immers, Great whales the shrimps deride ;

Tbe dark fish covet glimmers, And none quite satisfied.

Is there a place so quiet

It may not foster vices ? Is there a state where diet

For every want suffices?

Ocean, canst add one word in clemency And satisfy our ever curious doubts? Thy pearls of thought to us were morning stars.

In these low plains of secrecy and night, Where curtained stillness hangs its deepest folds, The script of dark sea lore unread, unguessed, Has feeling numb and sluggish grown — unused ? Not made to think like brain, nor feel like heart. Our lowly feet are prone to numl)ing sleep ; But wake with prickings we are forced to bear.

SEA DRIFT. 81

Dost thou thiits share the smother of dark caves? Can stirless, utter rest brood deepest joy, As gleam of sympathy in stoHd face Can waken it to bright and winning charm?

Say this — canst thiou? "Held near to heart of Earth Whose primal warmth glows yet with fervid heat, The deepest throbs of sympathetic life And blessedness refresh my peaceful soul ; More rich in wealth of joy than daylight knows, More deep in reverent, fervent sympathies."

Night oft is mother of high thoughts and plans, Kindling one's working sense to ecstasies, To feelings of triumphant strong resolve ; Linking a thousand thoughts by bands of light, Does midnight vigil quicken so thy life. And stillness wake in finest reveries? Does high reflection fill thy night with stars More charming than our clearest sky can boast? Earth's treasures give but few rewards like these.

Thou answerest not. Nor mother Nature will — Who wraps her slightest mysteries in veils — Unless we grow more wise interpreters^. Her pointing finger bids us learn to read All truth in things.

82 SEA DRIFT,

Our lids of visions closed, And ears too dull to catch thy vibrant speech, Perhaps in fullness of beatitude — Unworthy thy shoe latchets to unloose — Such waiting^ secrets breathe with unsealed lips. The noblest flowers unfold their brilliant leaves More leisurely than thronging multitudes ; And rarest jewels capture human love, And spur the heart to careful, longer search. Where buried treasures lie in kingly state. Keep thy counsel, Ocean. "God's in His Heaven," And earth and deepest sea ; all's well with thee !

SEA DRIFT. 83

VI.

DREAMS.

The wildest prank, some past must thank, In weakest things, some strength has rank, And Truth in Falsehood holds her place. Looks bravely out through his false face; Weak Falsehood dies when Truth withdraws, Too poor to live alone, his cause !

Dreams, shadows or reflections are Of saner happenings, near or far — Reflections fair, beauty endowed. The shadows swathed in lowering cloud ; Sleep-Demon, by his wondrous arts The good or bad, relentless, starts.

Grim shadow-dreams, most merciless,

Pierce cruelly with false distress,

Steal one's poor wits with fiendish glee,

And hypnotize his sanity —

The good child's bread and milk renew

To banish this inhuman crew !

84 SEA DRIFT.

But dreams llnal woo us coaxini:;-ly, Can soothe or spur adorably ; As swcot as morninp;' breath of flowers, Enforced by cooHng l)ath of showers; Stran<;e colors rare and richly vvroU|[^lU, And hic^her, softer i^lory taui^^ht.

As rocks that rise in adamant,

In water's wavering grace enchant;

Or interweaving mystic zone

By roseate clouds on lakelet thrown

Tn eddyings of bright content —

The commonplace in banishment.

Deep in the heart of fine ideal, dingers aiul hides the cruder real ; They grow twin born, like Siam's twins Inseparable. When ideal wins. The real unfolds in clearer light ; And two are wed in open sight.

Ocean, T saw or seemed to see, far down Through crystal paths of telescopic reach, (Whim's telescope, improved; made submarine, Excels all occult crystals of the seers,) A grotto higih and broadly overarched And water filled from base to lofty roof;

SEA DRIFT. 85

Its rocky sides nptovvcrini:;- gnivc and ^rim, Half visil)lc and vague. Small, fitful lights Meandered round, then faded like past dreams; And lost, the darkness grew condensed, con- gealed. The cave in awful shadowed stillness lay, Water and rocks, massive alike, and dead as death.

Then, slowly swimming in, there came a fleet Of strange fantastic things; long demijohns With su])ple curves and fishes' fins and tails, Sem'i-transparencies, comic, uncouth, Faintly aglow in soft and bluish tints. Each bore ui)on its back what seemed a lamp, Pouch shaped, with twisted ])arrol-beak — alive. Shifted to niches of the fretted rock, These flamed and ])aled by turns, Hashing clear

light Which kindled all the lately darkened space With glow of changing ojjal fitfuhicss.

Wise bower birds gather shining gauds to deck The green approaches to thc'ir thicket homes; Tlie crows and blackbirds steal our shining toys; These sea imps brought this bright and jolly

crew, (Their merriest, who seemed to grin in light),

86 Sn.^ DRIFT.

To liven 11]) a p^rand festivity;

And luindrcds scattered gleams, as clouds the

rain. The uncouth hearers rested, overcome With i)leasnre more than toil. Their tails and

fins, Like silver fans, waved slowly up and down The cool hlack waters, which, as softly stirred, Caup^ht sparkles of the lamps and flamed again.

The love of heauty, of fine ornaments. Innate, as love of flavors and good food — To us improved, no doubt, and much refined — Contents these lowly dwellers of the sea. With all the zest of outcome yet to be, Do these like change as Nimrods crave the hunt, Grand scampcrings. and hazard just ahead, Oiiwooing, like another Tantalus, Who craves and seeks, yet never finds supply?

Along our upper shores, revolving lights Which signal dangers to the ships at sea, Cheer night-robed waves v^rith fitful blossoming, With like unequal glow, here wax and wane, Now flame, now shade, with breathing soft effect ; As light itself enjoyed the pleasing change.

SEA DRIFT. 87

The grotto, smilinp^ in its silver gray, Of softened sliadow ; every now and then Deepened by bhiisli green and purple shades. The pouehlike tiny lamps, luinclied nj) like toads, Pimpled with gleaming scales, ugly and bright, Poured out cool flames like laughter, in quick

jets, Odd little spirts of gleeful, scattered smiles. And ocean pulses seemed to throb in time ; The dee]) ])at(.'mal heart alight with joy, And answering smile with smile — as fathers do.

The coming in of favored guests began, Things nondescript, of every form and size, Some, moving leisurely, with confidence, But others hurrying on in gasping haste. Panting — in mortal fright at fierce pursuit ; As when, a hawk wide circling in the skies, Young chickens flee to safe maternal wings.

The rocky fissures l)U(lded with small eyes Which peered, and, steel-sharp, flashed in

rivalry ; Sometimes of gems embossed on stone, shining In size and shape and li(juid brilliancy, As precious gems can never shine elsewhere; And rivalry with answering, peering eyes, Crown 1)ril!ia!it in this most unwonted sheen.

88 SEA DRIFT.

Without the grotto, held as by command, Arriving" hosts, of strange and nameless breeds — Their hasty voyages brought to sudden halt — Lay resting round about, tier over tier, By the sustaining waters firm upheld, And prone to sleep. The tiger and the Ian:' . Resting in peace together, seemed content. So caravans for cities walled and strong, Where heavy gates are locked as night draws on, Encamp in tents, to wait the coming dawn When they may enter, prized and welcome guests. What mandate held these would-be revelers ? Por here were neithier locks nor jealous gates, Nor posted sentinel to charge them halt. With threat of prison, chains, or legal death.

Why linger they in open grotto's court? Some strong unwritten laws all dumb things

keep They might not, if they could, reveal to us ; Fishes, birds, bees, strange occult knowledge

prove By social gifts outranking wisest man — Gained then through senses more evolved than

ours. We, too, pause, dcep-breath'd, instinctively, Before the weighty claims upon ourselves; Can we be heirs of this far ancestry?

SEA DRIFT. 80

Within the grotto, all in quiet placed, A lingering twilight falls new hom and sweet; The lively things drop off in slumberous rest, Worn out by agitations, toil and hope.

HUSH.

Tiny lamps more softly burn, Gentler breathing craves its turn ! Fishes, fold your prickly fins !— Ancient peace and stillness wins; Creatures, think no more of toil ! Water-snakes, take restful coil! Efts and bugs, packed side by side, In the rocky crannies hide! All the shells, your house doors close ! No stars tripping round on toes! No small earwig swiftly glide! Not a beetle skate or slide ! Long-legged crabs, lie still and sleep ! Scarlet shrimps, no moving keep! Cuttles, talons long and fierce, Dream not strangled foe to pierce! Wiser sea folk, high In state. Moveless, keep your watch and wait.

90 SEA DRIFT,

Strange phantom shapes come glicHng in As througli the grotto's thick, unbroken walls. All colorless as stainless waters are; So clear, one through another shows as plain As seen through water only. Thin their forms; Their features dim and barely traceable — All moving on and taking attitudes, Some comical, and solemn some as prayer, And each intent upon his own device, As they were living, breathing, feeding things! Shapes surely more bizarre than Father Time In all his days has calmly looked upon.

The limpid, pale, uncanny things were there; They floated free, wagged phantom shapes, and

swayed In recognition, or made feints of war When friend or foe was met in husili more deep And awesome than the starless midnight sky. Some even leaped and dived; as substanceless As idle revcry dreaming wraiths of dreams ; Like water poured tlirough wnter, falling free Within the midst, keeping its own old look; Which will not freely mix and lose itself.

These fragile shades all played their little parts, And died again to Ocean's water world

SEA DRIl'T. 91

As they had never been. Thou gavest not One trace of knorwledge they had come or gone, Nor one of all the haunted sleepers woke.

Not shadows they. The scene was shadow wrapiK'd To equal depth. Nor were they idle (h-canis That aimless come to baffle vacant minds. They seemed to teach some lesson hard to read ; Like human breath, still-born in frosty air, Then in a moment lost, till not a film remains. How like a myriad, myriad other thinj^s, Hid in the womb of Time, they dro]) from sight !

Were they last remnants of the early yeast Of rising life: firstlings of trial skill Never more made, but vaguely, faintly s!<atclied. Trials of first uncertain venturing? The haunting shades of possibilities That might be flesh, but never will — nor were? Or are they wandering ghosts of old-time things Who wronged thy caverned deeps when thou

wert young, That breathed, and grew, and lived, and died

long since? Or in their queer uncouthness will they live In coming time, and gather solid forms? And to their children give inheritance

92 SEA DRIFT.

On higher Hnes, with generous strong advance — First shreds of mysteries, awaiting flesh, As these that sleep wait their festivities? Or can thy waters lend themselves to shape The dreams these sleepers urge to mimic hirth, In moving forms of poor and vagrant thoughts? Or did the primal untaught elements At first do all they could creating these — First shadows of a destined coming life?

RESPONSE.

Sometimes an old clock's weary, droning "Tick! tack!'' Can steal one's thought, and send it echoed back In parrot monotone : "Again ! again !" Until the crazy words are fretful pain,

Or bolder ringing bell, with its "Ding! dong!" Can twist one's feelings into mocking song. And draw them large, and scatter everywhere, Until your heart itself seems in the air:

So, questioning awoke some answering voice — Within, without, who knows ? Nor had I choice ; This silver thread of sound no sense could shock ; Like water dripping clear from rock to rock.

SEA DRIFT. 93

Drop ! drop ! drop ! in pleasant shadowed glen, Shut out in peace from all the toils of men. The low sound pressed, and echoing, slowly died As hanging sea-mists into clear sky glide.

THE ANSWER.

We are but the unfilled wishes Of too early dying fishes. Bodies perish, wishes, living, Strength to lasting purpose giving, Sleep as dead, near opening portals To the larger joys of mortals. Craving once-felt wealth of breathing, All the zests of life en wreathing.

We are children of the twilighi:, Lost, if held in changeless midnight. Famished hope, in chilly starkness In the wide sea's stubborn darkness. Age on ages we may slumber — None the flying ages number — Waiting, destined fresh awaking. From the long naps we are taking.

But when mysteries are thickening, We, too, feel unwonted quickening; And the hope of transient living, Ancient push to action giving,

94 SEA DRIFT.

We arouse — if twilight blesses — Brief the hour when rash light presses — Half waked souls in tranquil waiting For our full-born reinstating.

Dying never, nor may sever From our forms — close wed forever — We must wait till quickening motion Stirs anew in twilight ocean. All deap sea's athrob with feeling. And in supplication kneeling, Dumbly asks the great All-giving Quick advance to higher living.

SEA DRIFT. 95

VII.

ITie sleeping grotto woke anew to life, The little peering eyes grew large with sight, The lights flamed out afresh, and seemed to say In streams of ecstasy : *'The time has come !" Outwaiting guests swarmed in, in welcome

shoals. Some clung against the walls, queer arabesques. And with half-sleepy nods hung there. Live ornaments of branched and spreading

growth ; And some hung down in streamers, long and

grand, From height of vaulted roof, as rooted there ; And swaying to and fro, as breezes stir The long-armed branches of our greenwood trees. The priceless gems, too, seemed to wake and

flash, Outstanding from the brown plebeian rock.

Strange creatures of all forms and sizes played As frolicsome as early lambs in spring, Till all the waters swarmed with moving life. The barren floor grew richly carpeted

96 SEA DRIFT.

By patterned shapes, in colors deep and rare, That moved and shone; each answermg change

with change. One might have thought he stood gazing far

down From mountain height on richest autumn scene. Whose gold and crimson foliage — Flora's

realm — Was swaying hlithely to the piping winds.

When high tides ebb from land-locked surface

pools ; And sunbeams, glancing, play with stranded

waves That shimmer and laugh back bewitchingly ; Some few, small, Vvdiirling, waving, hiding things. Sprinkle the tiny bays and ocean pools, To charm our hearts. The gray-tanned, rocky

sides O'er-clustered with- the helpless weakling shells That cling, and, hopeful, wait returning tides — All these small creatures adding charm of life.

Th'is grotto floor grows dense with swarming

lives ; Some fleet of foot. Circles and stars change

place. Bright figures take new forms with brilliant easie.

SEA DRIFT. 97

There, shells, magnificent in coloring, Walk round in grandeur at a lively pace ; Long, gliding lines, like jewels threaded, move, Swift weaving in and out through all the mass; They stir the sluggards to a livelier change. Some tiny faces, set on spindle stems, With odd grimaces waver to and fro. And hold their base; wee effigies of men, With features wrought in wanton merriment — Poor wriggling worms on end ; but picturesque, Their jeweled setting flashing back the light.

Much frolic waits until the outer world, Barred out, can rest in old, unchanging ways.

A living, shining cloud sails up en masse And blocks the grotto's mouth — a midge-made

door, Like liquid gold in flow, softly toned down To mellowness of lingering, sunset rose.

So all is ready now for festival. The wandering lights start up more brilliantly, The little hunchback lamps breathe quick in flame, The demijohns grow fairly luminous. And everything reflects more shine and sheen, Till gaping creatures close their eyes and gasp — Unwonted to the sudden blinding light.

98 SEA DRIFT.

Tall pillars, here and there, unseen till now, Loom startlingly, enameled bright with flame, And seem to take a forward step — surprised.

A brisk kaleidoscopic dancing whirls Through all the startled cave from top to base, As driven by a single turning screw To moving geometric harmony. Things, swimming, diving, skating on. In interweaving mazes, swift or slow — The curious pattern never twice the same — Each creature follows out its own device. Claw-armed and bunched-up swimmers, sidle

round As smoke wreaths twist and turn in limpid air; Odd fish, ablaze with fins, take flying vaults; Slim, sinuous, darting things, how smoothly

glide ; Some roll in wheels among the swimming hosts ; Dots float and leap, aglow like silver beads. If unmeant contacts hap, they slide apart And swiftly glance aside without a pause; The moving whole as orderly and smooth As fitted parts of one gay pantomime.

Is deep sea life a jest and parody Of higher, many-sided social life? At this rare fete grow marvels strangely dark,

SEA DRIFT. 99

To chill the soul, if any dare observe The passing shames and crimes of ocean life, Born out of time in midst of joyous play. The charming love of beautiful and fine, Has it no call to veil a darker side?

A slow approaching music richly swells in sweet, enchanting, muffled cadences. Dreamy and low, waking nor sleeping seems ; But strangely musical soft throbs of sound. Has craze of motion waked response afar In tones like distant chant of choristers ? Can Ocean's tidal voice, in swing above. Send floating echoes down, mellowed and sweet, To punctuate the long mionotony ? Can cheerful sounds of earth, clamors of men. Or chimes of bells — sifted and washed in transit To long-drawn sweetness — stir this silent world?

To this far music, light seems beating time, The shining little pendulums of flame A living pulse, throbbing from more to less, Waxing and waning, joyously ; And every creature slower, kindlier moves. Responding in a new and cheerful march; All motion rises, falls, as some deep thought Finds lost expression in these harmonies !

^LcfC.

100 SEA DRIFT.

And in the very midst of this sweet peace And comity, a startHng crisis comes; Strong players, weary with unwonted tasks. The helpless, weak and tender smaller fry Snap up in hungry haste with no least pause Of movement ; and none even looks reproach ! No weakest swimmer halts, made dead with fear. On, on, the pageant moves, eager, unchecked ; The chanting nearer, louder, faster grows ; And brighter grows the glare of radiance — The novel viands of this reckless feast As temptingly abundant, fresh and free As berries purloined from a fruitful bush; And none are missed, and no one seems to care Or dream of cruelty, or hurt, or wrong. In ancient Rome sweet music lived in peace With hard barbarity and sodden crime.

Conduct yet more obscure is hard to read. Some long-legged skaters stretch their moving

arms. And dangling, stroke their kin — in love or hate One cannot guess ; but little flashes glow In quick and answering flame at every touch Till stroked and stroker draw apart. Lithe, agile creatures, most unlike in form, Now balance face to face as dancers do.

SEA DRIFT. 101

Squaring their fluttering fins or spindling arms — In threat and challenge, or in peace untold.

Like learned folk of vastly higher schools, Are these queer sprawling tribes dazed? drunk

with light So poor 'twould fade like moonshine in clear day? On higher planes could deeds so dastardly Be made to simulate benignity ?

Outside the cave, hang starers, crude in form, Great images rough moulded in coarse clay. Each trying patiently to peep beyond The midge-made screen, atoss with surging gnats Swarming like bees. The poor relations sway To sights and sounds within, half enviously; Yet share with zest, in tame humility. Ambition grows by what it feeds on most ; These must have scanty diet, poor and coarse. Through opening rifts the restless midges make In dancing change, some gleams of light outflash Like shooting stars athwart the outer dark; The starers cringe or flee to blacker deeps.

Not far away, at foot of sloping hill. There lives and thrives the loveliest, daintiest

race. Sea princesses, of Flora's realm — well born.

102 SEA DRIFT,

Slim sylvan dryads, clad in palest green And ocean lace. Tall, straight and fine, Each wed in birth and death to one slight reed, They calmly live their sacred vestal lives In high serenity and wise content. — Exclusive dames, wr-apped deep in quietness, Whatever tumults rage or changes hap. The grotto's gala day, alight so near, And hungry monsters roaming everywhere. These slim sea ladies take their naps at ease- Each leaning on her own half-bended rush.

VARIETIES.

In sea, on land, all things that live,

Fit well their place; For Nature knows just what to give

Each new queer race. She paints her flowers and sunsets bright,

Her tree trunks gray; She lets her wolves and lions fight,

An.d young lambs play. Her butterflies have velvet wings,

Fish, spiney fins ; But compensation works with springs;

It's life that wins!

SEA DRIFT. 103

This charming world would look as dull

As tarnished lead, Had all her nurseries, over full.

One type of head; As inelastic Life, as dry

Old putty is, If fated all to live and die

Alike in phiz; Insipid as the lees of wine,

Tasteless and flat. If every purple-clustered vine

Must feed one vat.

A wholesome large variety.

No one defrauds ; Better than weak satiety.

Sharp pricks and gauds; Sooner than endless woolly sheep.

Two kinds of fleece ; Nature woul'd hold her gifts too cheap

Were all swans — geese. And she would set her gauge too high,

If all were men ; From grass, to trees that lift the sky,

Be ten times ten! To seek, to find, to feel content

As children play;

104 SEA DRIFT.

To seek a.Qain, first earnings spent,

Need not dismay ; For when the seeking higher rises,

Claims better food, New sustenance each need surprises.

For each Jiis good. There is no limit set for gain ;

This one thing done ; — Hunger and thirst as earth for rain I

Then all is won.

A learned teacher from our sunny world, A venturous savant, who would fain explore The deep sea mysteries with open eyes, Came dropping strangely, slowly from above In most ingenious air-filled diving car. Tt rested lightly on the ocean's floor Where friendly sea folk lay in 'customed place. His wondering earnest eyes scanned eagerly All living creatures there in evidence ; And unknown things he placed in yawning net, And fastened deftly to his helpful car.

The grotto's revelry was nearly done. Tts most unusual glow just out of ken; And as the teacher groped with diligence For deeper knowledge he so nearly won.

S/i/1 DKII'T. 105

The cloud of midges hiokc .'ind sc.'illcrcd wide

To fold tliciii c.'ich in dai kiiess — glad to rcsl.

As noiselessly tlic silcnl frolickers,

Sonic clnij.M'iii; two and I wo foi- imiln.d clicrr,

IHoat (jff to c:o(j1 tlicnisclvcs in open seas;

The clustered lamps, towed on or swimming

free, Left not a ray within — as light itself had died.

r)utsidc the grotto's mouth was sKirnn'shing Which might have given eidightenment ; hut

failed Like other might-have-heens not hronght to

birth. Some sca-vy^ags saw the Teaehcr, twiddlcrl fins, As saucy hoys th(;ir fingers, thtunh on nose; And sidled off like hrjys in nn'scliicf caught. One lie<:dlcss swimmer, will) Ircincndons jaws, I lad nearly flealt tlie sage a hurtful wound, r>ut saw in time and wheeled to savc! (hem holh. IVlost saw him nol, no mor<- llian llicy w<r(- seen; l>ut hasting shoal of lamhcnt demijohns Ga/>ed wonderingly, in sudden shock and halt, On this (jueer stranger from ihe sunshine world. The savant caught a softened glimmering. Pale molten silver flickering in the dark; But when not yet defined, it faded out

106 SEA DRIFT.

In lingering grins, like famous Cheshire cat's, And blackness wrapped the silent neig'hborhood.

By some stray clatter made, were gently waked The virgin group of sylvan dryads near; Each startled, beckoning to her friends, stood

tall, Glancing around with doubtful, questioning

looks, As whispering each, "Beware," but with no

sound. Amid the darkness barely visible. They saw the foreign wonder looming dim.

One daring maiden forward bent, and swayed, Twisting on slender stem, and wagged her head, Seeming almost to beckon his approach. The other shyer vestals in amaze Drew back, hiding more close in clustered

groups. Much doubting of this unknown wonderment; And yet with busy thoughts and questioning. I seemed to hear the rustle as they moved ; Or was it echo of the grotto voice, A last low lingering ripple, heard again, An echo shaping tones of liquid speech?

SEA DRIFT, 107

DEEP SEA THOUGHT.

Is he a dweller in the sea,

Who comes agaze this way? An awful monster, hungrily

In search of dainty prey?

How hard he stares — this bugaboo!

How stealthily he moves! His eye burns all the water through;

An evil thing he proves.

He surely dropped from up above

Where creatures never rest, Where everything must change and shove,

And work — to find the best.

They dredge and snare our poor sea folk.

They stab with shining spears ; This one caught dozens ere we woke,

Worse ! worse than all our fears !

How vilely move their houses, too!

Some breathing fire and smoke Go rushing swift the waters through

Just pounding stroke on stroke.

108 SEA DRIFT.

Thank goodness ! up he goes at last ;

A horrid, horrid thing! The chance to battle fierce and fast

The squibs and sharks might bring!

What dreadful beings live up there, In that white, fearful world,

Where life is always change and care, And things down here are hurled !

How grateful this cool, shaded sea,

No sun can penetrate ; Water, the type of calmness, we

Sweet calmness emulate.

To live where nothing stays unchanged

Must be a tiresome way ; When everything is all arranged,

How nice to have it stay!

Long baffled knowledge found no open door To Ocean's charming realm of phantasy. Where tricksy things can sport right royally. Fearing no master's black, condemning mark. The love of play and generous helpfulness

SEA DRIFT. 109

Made shadowed Hades blossom as the rose, And silence old find soft impressive voice. Darkness congenital awoke in light, To sleep again in more profound repose.

The golden sparkles drop to raven black, With little surges much like waywardness. Or sad and sighing breath of vanished joy ; And light is lost as waves are lost at sea.

110 SEA DRIFT.

VIII.

Yes : claim the wliite diamond akin to black coal ; Pray, who robs the eagle and skylark of soul ? In the wide sea of Time, everything laves, The whole teeming world is afioat on its waves And all of its flotsam, painstaking, it saves.

Impartial Ocean, helping all who breathe, Thy fishes war together, rend and kill ; Hunting the feebler folk whom they devour, And grow in strength by such base infamy!

But we, mankind, highest of rising lite, Who search for best as with a lighted torch ; Full panoplied in nice fastidiousness, Wrapped warm in sunshine, — hurt and slay On greenest earth of fruitful heritage ! We, too, devour all creatures less endowed. If they but tempt capricious appetite !

Then is their waiting no alternative? Can deep research, with great and countless gains Secured, outline the Golden Rule — revised?

SEA DRIFT. Ill

Will no way open out from this dread maze

Of life for life; and strength from conquered

strength, A way where all may walk in spotless white?

If conflicts wage far down in lonely seas, Where tender helplessness should calmly rest. Nor dread the winter's cold, nor summer's heat — At peace for unmarked, creeping, tarrying

years — If in that awesome darkness, pale dumb death Comes stealthily, waking no silences. Or stirs dumb moans and dirges pitiful; And if above, mid tidal sobs, poor fish. Like wounded water, yield, making no sign, Though mourned by wailing of the hardest

rocks ; If in cold blood all tribes on others feast And thrive by weakness they can chase and slay. Wiser device can we suggest for change? The whole quick world waits answer, in sus- pense. Have we yet learned to live and do no hurt To those less wise and strong than we ourselves ?

Man, beast, or thing, reacts in character, One's deeds, his children — in his image born. No praters ot a high morality

112 SEA DRIFT.

Find out a kinder way than these — our peers, Broach any scheme more good, complete, or fine. Then all our houses are of brittle glass, And we defenceless as the hungry fish. Even canine giants scorn wasting strength On pigmies.

If arraigning Providence, Pray, who has fathomed His unfinished plans. Their complex method solved? their teaching

learned ? Divined the half of simplest processes, Changes and more changes, in ceaseless flow, And tracked the subtle forces to their goal? A six-years' babe may criticise a king; The king, with smiles, will work his own wise

way.

Gaunt hunger masters all, and all must dine That all may live ! If one must surely die May early dying have its recompense? Sweet rose has thorns; sharp points pierce

bleeding flesh When gathering blossoms of best charities ! Could all men learn to feast on minerals, A science so advanced might find deep life Also in these^— offshoots of Living Mind.

SEA DRIFT, 113

ALLIED.

"I'm the seed of all flesh!" cried out the ripe

corn, "In the might of my strength the man-child is

born !" "He is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone!" Bleated the ewe lamb — (important her tone) ; — "And he drinks of my cup!" softly laughed the

bright water, "I flow in the veins of the son and the daugh- ter;— We are everyone helpless or working together. And all of us bound by the very same tether; For the storm like the sunshine gladdens the weather."

Who knows the end of that which has no end? If all is of All Life, then all is life Though it has never known itself as life, Nor wakened feeling made its very own.

To harm, to wrong, to give another pain, From carelessness or base malignity, Is not the law that bids us eat and live; Is not the law that bids the eaten live

114 SEA DRIFT.

His endless life that none can take away! All Life, being- All, His law is helpfulness — The reverent help that both receives and gives. A brokm world moves on in asteroids Or swarms of golden meteors clothed with

power, That bravely journey onward all the same. Such crooked lines are rods but water bent; Raised into sunshine, they are straight again.

LIFE.

Feeling, intense, may cease to feel, Not hardened as with nerves of steel.

Simply at rest — laid by ; No creature lives in steady glare Of deep emotions, rich and rare;

To sleep is not to die !

The senseless stones, not yet awake, In heart of Life their long nap take;

They draw no vital breath ; Have not achieved the waking glow, Of sentient joys or sentient woe; —

There is no other death!

SEA DRIFT. 115

Only the infinite can bear,

Life conscious always, everywhere,

In full eternal flow ; Though life is cherished deep in soul Of everything — the part, the whole, —

Emotions come and go.

The gift of self-hood made to each, If feeling be beyond one's reach,

Helpful, he needs must wait; Can one help best by laying down Fresh tasted joys — there waits his crown

And new enlarged estate!

The power that makes for righteousnesis, Plucked at by ignorance, yields unripe fruit; And Nature's service, full, beneficent. Works but a hair's breadth off from fastenings That may throw wide the gates of dire distress. Mishap clings shadow close to happiness, Yet never may supplant the lawful heir ; And since last earthly sleep must come to all, If others reap from our unripened field, Can that be added pain to consciousness?

116 SEA DRIFT.

INCREASING GAINS.

To wake and love the sun,

To bask in lii;lit. To walk and leap and run Is keen (lelii;lit ; If worm or snail ean even creep, That vivid joy has eoiKjuered sleep!

On floats of ^auze to fly,

With (lol])hins swim. Tribute is to earth and sky, The ocean's hymn ; To break life's zen^ line — the start To hnd hrst t^ood — is ])riceless art.

First sentient breath has won!

Come then what may, The life of life bei^un, Redeemed dull clay, No one can snatch this richest prize; Let no one dare to say: "He dies!''

To win hi<;h human thought.

The spirit's llame ; To learn how chant^^e is wrought.

And j)ush one's aim —

SEA DRIFT. 117

His waji^on liitclunl to f^lcaniiiif!^ star — Is just below wlicrc angels arc.

Why cnrsc the liartlness of llie scheme of things IVIoving serenely toward the warnilh and light? V.vvn ])etrifaction is eonservalive ! Wise arbitration cancels needless war, Not hunger — native and ])erennial — That, can but order well its times and modes.

CREATIVE PURPOSE.

Did God say in his beneficence and majesty,

And with the yearning of t'he father's heart?

*T cannot bring their gaining lives too close! too close I

IVIy little children, heli)less else, must work to- gether,

Creating for themselves their sentient gains

As I created them for their unfolding destinies.

'Hiey are together bound, nor ever loosed, al- though they know it not.

The all, is all for each.

118 SEA DRIFT.

The stormiest night is herald of the rising day yVnd night must reign till sunny day is born in

light ; And blindness lead till vision points the way.

"The narrow greeds of appetite, imperative

within, Strong pushed, will venture into fields without, Pricked on by goads to seek and find; Will hold great wealth Oi poor and fleeting values, Till nobler gains are prized and yield their loftier

recompense. Till opening minds search long to penetrate the

night, Impelled, to eager questioning of best and worst. The heavy clouds of overhanging mysteries. Awesome and dread while still unknown, Hold mighty powers that crush, if not controlled. The rash and cruel deeds rouse dormant zest of

life, Nourished by what they find ; but helped and

hurt alike. They help and hurt in turn — till, wiser, better

grown. So roots in darkness nursed, bloom fair in light. y\nd cold and stormy dawn melts into smiling

day.

SIL1 DRIFT. lU)

"The personal gain to each, — his wakened eon-

sciousncss, Bright feeling's living rise and growth, Volition, action, free within their outlined

bounds. The wide intelligence ; — becomes his own for

each ; Nor one of all his many, full, successive deeds — If wrought for good or ill, in love or hate, to

one or all — Not one of his sweet, vivid, waiting gains, nor

pains. Can be made possible, and be of great and stable

worth or loss. Unaided and alone ; Nor can I make them his by gift — their value

still retained.

"Earth's latest guiding factor, high born con- scious power,

For all success, on willing, strong co-workers must depend ;

As still unsentient being does on its allies.

Motion, predestined quick Emotions nurse,

Sharp pain will lead as elder brother in the march of life.

120 SEA DRIFT.

''My strong, mind-sleeping children, jointly build

The substances and worlds, and all their forms;

Their intervening details justly, deftly wrought;

And yet, unreasoning power strews peril often- times,

Breeding disasters needless, manifold and great,

Though working ever on as best it can.

*'The unlearned, little foolish minds, with dull

short-sightedness. Choosing to be themselves first served and best Must for themselves and others pluck sad and

bleeding hurts. So they and all will suffer long and grievously; But healing also comes with balm. Borne safely in the very arms of wrongs and

crude mistakes.

"Occult and strange will seem these devious

ways, Their complex lessons deep and hard — for long

— to read aright; But all my children — all — must learn to work In bonds of just and generous strong fraternity. To act from one's own plane, from hard won

choice,

SEA DRIFT. 121

But all my children — all — must learn to work In bonds of just and generous strong fraternity. To act from one's own plane, from hard won

choice, Though taught in fires of sevenfold heat and

hurt. Has satisfactions of the mightiest worth, — Only real good for all who breathe and seek for

happiness, Commissioned each to live and learn where gain

is sure. Conditioned methods, framed in utmost love

and care, Despite all penalties, And through the strenuous aid of wisdom

which they teach. Are sovereign remedies,

With time — made endless — working endless rec- ompense.

"Dependent each on all, as on the air they

breathe, 'Tis they, themselves, must win the offered

heritage ! My children, helpless else, must help each other ! I cannot draw weak, gaining lives too close for

their own good."

122 SEA DRIFT.

Shadows that fright and ignorance mislead, Arc but the ghosts of things whose deepest pulse Beats not quite perfectly with pulse of light, Though born within the inmost heart of forms As bones within the rounded living flesh. Bright color, form's aesthetic cuticle, Is wealth of beauty, richly manifest To every eye and heart endowed to feel ; It wraps all forms in breathing loveliness; But shadows wait outside, and dog the real As night drags on the skirts of royal day, And stretching them, lets misty twilight through.

Shadows are poorest tribes of parasites, Which shrink and hide, changing like shifting

winds. They always stay outside, and will be lost When motion's finest, full accord is gained, And every separate pulse is throbbing true To ordered concert of the perfect whole. When shadows die and pure reflections live, The Beautiful her choicest things can give, And Nature everywhere be justified.

As complex problems wait for higher skill, So messages wrapped up, unopened still, Are hard to read, but read at last aright As plain as A B C, stand out in light And leave us wondering over dullard sight.

SEA DRIFT. 123

TWO WAYS.

The green leaves sere and brown bark '-ough, Rich Nature cries, "Enough ! enough !" And provident as honey bee, She piles her fruit beneath the tree — Her leaves all loosed and wandering free.

The years like seeds are sown ; The tree and its descendants thrive And choicest fruits are born, survive, In their descendants, finer grown. Nor manna-gatherers they alone, Where gains, not dragon's teeth, are strewn! Small change on changes so arranged That all the forms of life are changed, Till not a man left here alive The cruder past has felt or known. No complex structures farther from the Saurian

age Than supple human forms in onward stage. So, .smiling, prosperous Earth still high and

higher Moves up in dignity as by her own desire.

No structural change in Ocean's range And nothing new or newly strange.

124 SEA DRIFT.

Type visible of moving steadfastness Helping the gaining world in its onpress. Like you and me in real identity, Unchanged in actual, priceless entity, As every God-constructed thing must be.

The wide sea craves no structural gains, Great billows rise on Ocean plains, His storms uplift high shadowed forms, Hard blows, with tumult, take and give; Then heartening all the ancient norms, Roll on in sunshine, glad to live.

Bright, lesser waves that never rest, — A world of power in each compressed — In storm and sunshine do their best. The long tides roll and ever roll, Nor ever seek a restful goal ; Slow inlets rise and fall as beggars stroll ; The rains and rivers dropping in. Supply the clear staccato din To ocean voices, never still ; But sea and land with legends fill, To teach mankind. Both methods win. Dame Nature's powerful hand holds fast the

helm. And guides each freighted bark to destined realm.

SEA DRIFT. 125

NATURE.

Nature's great mysteries,

Flowerlike unfold ; Solved, their proud histories,

When clearly told, Show only benefits,

Aid, freely given. Time's affidavits

So much have proven!

Nature is orderly,

Complex, but just; Ensured accordingly.

Trust her we must. All faith is strengthening —

Nature proved right — Every gain lengthening

Clearer insight.

Teeming life everywhere,

Sleeping, awake, Work, each his own share,

Must undertake ; Hedged in with barriers.

These will break down; Nature's sure carriers

Ensure her renown.

126 SEA DRIFT.

IX.

Clear, crystal Ocean, art insatiate? Thou! Though hunger urges not to fearful deeds? Men lay ten myriad deaths at thy dark door Which opes so freely, but shuts close again, Telling few tales of awful tragedy. They call thee treacherous, more hard of heart Than any rock in all thy gray cold world Whose fogs devour the valleys quick with corn. Dost woo poor, trustful men, by luring smiles, To tempt the faithless, hollow, ravening waves Who swallow them as hungry beasts their prey? They call thee lawless, cruel, pitiless, The fcaster on love's wildest agonies. In their long ache of grief, men smite with

words, As fierce winds smite with blows, thy wounded

cheek.

Far be from thee, kingly in thy great power, — The willing burden bearer for all need. Soother of pain, patron of life itself, The great restorer of all fainting souls, —

SEA DRIFT. 127

Far be from thee, of vast sweet pliancy,

From greed or treachery — no good end sought —

To chill one beating heart or rob one joy!

Art not relentless ! then, why floods of tears By mothers shed for sad child-loss and pain? And fathers hopeless bowed, as age-worn men. When thou hast clasped and hold their best be- loved, And covered in thy bosom, slumber rock?

Are these but grief-blind plaints of aching

hearts They shoulder off on tireless helpfulness? Thy garnering floor is laid in no pretense. Spreads wide, and far, and free, like heaven's

blue dome, With offered place and rest for all who come ! If baby fingers seize the glittering flame, Who curses sword-edged fire because it hurts? A rushing car must crush the dearest child, That stumbling in its path, yields up sweet life ; Earthquakes must shake the Earth, when down

below The Titan Forces find no room to work !

128 SEA DRIFT.

That Power which gave them power within their bounds, Could not revoke his franchise and not shake His universe and every hfe he gave — Undoing all his just beneficence! After its own methods, each thing must work, With best, straightforward, wisest zeal it can. Though earth and sea wail long in blinded grief ! If finite best is misinterpreted And smitten as for crimes, even so they smite The Source of all that lives, misreading Him !

When zvisdoin works, its work well done. Can't ravel out — once more begun.

Ocean's not hard to men and not malign Unless the softest heart our world can boast Is deepest sham and moral adamant! All functions are allied in honest lazv. Swift wheels go round and one ungeared. Would work disaster till the whole had died, Creation falling backward — uncreate. While waters ripple at the touch of winds, Shimmer and lift their crowned white heads in

song At every stirring whisper of soft breeze ; When mad winds urge with storm, their tower- ing might

SEA DRIFT. 129

Must wreck the blundering, reckless craft at sea. Mankind's best enterprises — shadow haunted — Behind their best results draw fearful trains Of casualties no generous heart desires !

Constructive freedom, always limited, Inborn method through its limits rises, And nothing finite but must work within! Nature, enchained by sheer necessity. Might bring no ill ; but poor would be her good, No freedom given to mind ! Matter itself Is free to change and move through space, in

time, When helpful neighbors share! Conditioned

force, — The only force with which the finite works — In neighborly combine and ready change, Is free within its bounds.

If Jesus wept For Lazarus dead, though bound to ransom him, The loving heart may mourn its early lost Till bleeding griefs are changed to clear-eyed

smiles ! To-day's hot tears become to-morrow*s pearls, And priceless compensations, treasure trove! But feeling feeds on bleeding present loss

130 SEA DRIFT.

And little heeds the future's heritage;

Fond heart oft breaks the laws wise head has

made; And blinded grief would mar unripened good.

The swift-winged conflict battling overhead, And stalwart men rough swept from love and life, I've heard deep sobbing in the midnight watch As though all Nature's soul in protest broke For other's woes. There was no power to save. The wealth of tears for drowned humanity Is poured on soils which take and straight for- get.

Are not obedient surfs bade faithfully To bear .the drowned child back to mother's

arms? The reaching shores are pitying witnesses How roughest billows aid the sacred task ; And all they can, things most insensate do In close accord with Order's perfect law.

Soft grace that shapes itself to every cup, Close clinging to all sides with reaching clasp; That, trusting, paints itself with every dye, Clouded, or enriched to splendid brilliancy ; That washes clean all soil, accepts the stain. Drops it, to sparkle crystal clear again —

SEA DRIFT. 131

These are all matchless gifts on virtue's side, For which we praise thee, Ocean, and admire. Responsiveness thou never may'st transcend, Responsiveness thou never shouldst transcend ! Thy treasured greatness, and thy trenchant

power, Are held as in the hollow of His hand Who teaches men alike by good and bad ; The bad which they, themselves, in folly wrought ; He gave thee service, set in rank thy bounds.

Vast pliability, of subtle reach. Moves lathe, wheel, saw and spindle, cheerily- Floods open channels with a fluent wealth When men lead on ; transforms itself to steam — Bright Ariel of the now confederate world, Still doing more than work of Hercules Or Sisyphus, asking no recompense; Rejoicing with expanding willingness To aid all purposes that mind suggests — These virtues, while men keep the sense to prize Service unstinted as the breath we breathe. May heal all thoughts of ill, but good disguised. There's round and square, but both are never

one; Nor can they be in any world of space.

132 SEA DRIFT.

PERSPECTIVE.

Horizon always chained to earth,

Measured by few short miles across —

Is what one sees of mij^^hty worth In reckoning endless gain and loss?

One's finger, near, can hide yon spire Outlined in beauty on the sky;

Yon mountain, tipped with evening fire. On far horizon towering high !

A little Moses, pleased with toys,

May scorn great gifts from royal hand;

The man whom Providence employs, May fail to reach the promised land.

A heart disturbed by petty spite, That hungrily devours its zeal,

Is blind to soul's redeeming light; Is numb to hopes the generous feel.

Vast worlds seem little golden nails. Which grace a bending azure floor;

Is death the end when swcJl life fails? The usher, opening loftier door?

SEA DRIFT. 183

Horizon, ever chained to earth, Measured by only miles across!

Is what man sees of mighty worth In reckoning life's full gain and loss?

A kingly realm exacts conformity In its domain to upright policy ! Ocean, how more than willingly thou wouldst, How more than willingly, Ocean, thou wouldst Life fitted to thee as the glove to hand, In all its forms might thrive, clasped in great

arms Of soothing softness! The shining, swimming

hoards, Though clad in silver mail, purple and gold, Speed swift as arrows from the bended bow To every goal a vagrant fancy craves. Fish, domiciled in private tents of pearl, Wrought thick with carvings rare, and paintings

rich — Small temples of thick-ribbed, banded strength- Move house at will for better pasturage. Some, stationed in the homes of ancestors. Rest there in confidence, awaiting gifts Which seek them as glad sunshine seeks earth's

flowers. All these luxuriate in thy glorious bath.

134 SEA DRIFT.

To s€a-wards, ocean born, and ocean bred. Thy largess is as rich and full as wish may

crave. To men endowed with sun-warm gifts of earth. All this and more is free, could we accept. We all may pluck free treasures from thy deeps As welcome as from hawthorn bush in i\Iay, Still living our own lives on gracious earth; May send our ships around the whole wide

world On thy sustaining, faithful bosom held. Upborne and forwarded in loyalty.

IMPARTIAL LOVE.

Sweet mother-love, the mother's tenderest loy- alty.

Though her untoward children strive in jealousy,

Has won all hearts, since Eve, who wept first tears for Abel,

Could not unlearn sweet tenderness divinely stable :

But mourning one child slain, the other sorely pitied.

And would have borne his penalty had God permitted.

SEA DRIFT. 135

Thou, Ocean, only stepsire of the curious nations Who invade thy province and pre-empt full

rations, Benignant art; like God in highest charity, Who sends sweet rain, sunlight and warmth, in

purity. On just and unjust both : — needless, not one

harassing — Impartial goodness, even mother-love surpassing.

In stillest, safest nooks, thou hidest shelteringly, The lack of strength, of moveniicnt, of fair

symmetry, And spread'st remote wide seas for graceless

enmity : For feebleness, inventing quaint indemnity ; And nurturing every least advance, through

weary stages, Foster their slow made gains for lingering,

patient ages!

Who claims the more than innate power can give? Olympian Jove held thunders in his hand, Bright Phoebus drove the chariot of the sun. And lions use their strength with feline grace. Small robin red breast has but dainty ways —

136 SEA DRIFT.

Beauty and morning songs and building skill; Each gives but from himself, and what he loves. ^Twould be a monstrous wrong to ask for more ; The best one can, should give unmixed content.

Sweeter the songs in trees than thunder's

voice ; One sunbeam wields more power than leagues of

shade, And morning dewdrops have no peers in gems. We pluck not grapes from thorns nor figs from

thistles. Peter said, "Such as I have give I thee." To meet just claims wins royal heritage; But grumblers know not when or where to

blame.

WHICH?

The tempest is raging, oh, right fearfully; But which one began it, the wind or the sea? Which one is tossing black clouds in the air, Which chasing and racing the fastest out there' Great ships are battered, strong ships are broken ; Voices in infinite protest have spoken ; The grey wolves are howling, the timid sheep

flee, And which one began it, the wind or the sea?

SEA DRIFT. 137

Great Ocean is boiling with mad energy, But which one began it, the wind or the sea? New mountains uprising Hke old Babel towers, Drop down into babel, where tumult devours. The hammer and clamor poor sea folk have

frightened. And fiercely in snatches dense blackness is

lightened ; With strain as of cordage, the braces are

tightened ; With clashing and crashing, great blows falling

free, Oh, which one began it, the wind or the sea?

If blame we must, why ! rate the errant winds That smite a yielding face with raging blasts. Goading deep waters on to fateful deeds ; Yet winds are laden messengers of health. Their stormy wings heaped high with priceless

gifts For every need. All taunts, they can receive With airy grace and strew on desert sands. This carries back sharp discontent one step, And hints that all the fruits from Nature's

store ; — Pomegranates and apples of Sodom, both — Are best dull, carping souls can fitly take.

138 SEA DRIFT.

Turn, then, our faces toward deep gratitude That Cause, two ways must face for good and bad.

The marts of commerce trust to Ocean's faith, A milhon ferries ply from shore to shore. Vast treasures, over welcome unblazed path Are piloted from earth's remotest lands, And men adventure lives on stormy seas Freely as birds spread wings in fitful air ; Man's hope entrenched in sacred realm of Law; Nor ever, Ocean, hast thou broken faith. Elastic, molten glass, thy waters are, Thy broad, sustaining shoulder lifting all To level of self-help and competence — Their guidance justly leaving to themselves. Mind's best devices, better, wiser planned, Should circumvent all casualties!

With venturous journeyings among the stars, With boundless, gracious amplitude of change. Yet thou, no more than mortal man, canst vault Beyond thyself, nor win an alien goal. Unchanged thy glorious attributes ; Earth firm ; As staid as Earth's rock-sinewed ancient hills, Nor more unnerved; nor moved from sturdiest base;

SEA DRIFT. 139

Help thou to justify His ways in Time,

Who leaves the evil bound in sheaves with good,

To wait the future's wider recompense!

COMPENSATION.

The restless tides that never sleep. Are anchored safe in moveless deep.

Some balm is grown for every ill, And each low vale adores its hill.

Rest, fulcrum proves to all unrest.

And motion springs from moveless breast.

Content is core of discontent,

From crooked bow straight arrows sent.

Post haste can snatch a quick relay. Calm night repair the fretted day.

Sleep, mainspring is to waking life, And peace is pivotal in strife.

So brawling tides that cannot sleep, Are anchored firm in voiceless deep.

140 SEA DRIFT.

X.

SERVICE,

Wide Ocean's carven shores reach round and

round the world; Deep in and out the wandering, winding Hnes

are curled. Here, low and sandy plain, there, high and rocky

ledge ; Rich fretted lace of silver glorifies its edge.

Wide strewn as lively breezes scatter plumy

seeds, Are sea-tossed shells of pearl and sea-grown

dainty weeds; Like olden stately courtiers, magnificent and

grand, Old Ocean kneels to kiss the great Queen's

royal hand.

With hospitality they learned of thee, Ocean, thy wards most kindly offers make To share their best, and live their sea-glad lives. Small, gentle dwellers in bright bowers of plants.

SEA DRIFT. 141

Afloat, and journeying safely on thy waves, I hear low coaxing me like charm of dreams; Or, are they only beckoning with their smiles — Sight one, in miracle, with wooing song?

SEAWEED ISLAND LIFE.

Come and share our tossing homesteads, Come and rest on floating sea beds !

Welcome warm we give ; Not a swimmer more contented; Island steadings still unrented;

Come, see how we live!

On our lonely, wandering island, Waving fronds, like flowers of highland.

Sea waifs love the sky; Borrow all its sunny brightness. And at night, its purer whiteness,

Moon or stars on high.

In small houses, mottled, pearly, Hid in fern woods green and curly.

Wee folk gently live; Some, the sweetest baby fishes, Tucked up warm in wave carved dishes; Some, in open sieve.

142 SEA DRIFT.

Hundreds of our winsome people, Round as dots or long as steeple.

Bright as flowers, Walk, or crawl, or swim, or waggle; For Best places seldom haggle —

Where we are, is ours.

Guests we have, dear little skaters, Sometimes wranglers and debaters;

Then, we float away; Things that live here altogether, Never minding wind or weather.

Nestle dowm and play.

All the great waves, island rocking, And the wild winds whistling, mocking,

Move us round and round; We are Ocean's sons and daughters. Oh, we love the dashing waters,

Love their swirling sound.

Within a narrow sheltered cove, O'erhung by green, low wooded grove Mid plashing rhythmic murmurs sweet, Of ripples lapping round my feet.

SEA DRIFT. 143

A shrill, small voice comes ;— far off calling, Calling through hoarse tide-waves, brawling; Like strands of light, w'ith metes and bounds, It threads its way through clang of sounds.

THE CORAL REEF.

Oh, come where coral sea-fronds red. Lift up stone branches high o'erhead! These groves are large and strongly made, Yon shore in their wide arms is laid.

Small, ancient masons raised high towers. Laid stone on stone and lined with flowers ; — The noblest palaces — these rare Old scuttled dwellings marble fair;

Cathedrals grand our masons formed, And sea-washed, large-doorcd temples, warmed With window-light still soft and clear ; And branching galleries, tier on tier.

Sea horses rush to our front door. Untamed ; onrushing, mad with power ; But fortress-checked their royal sport. Back off subdued; we hold the fort!

144 SEA DRIFT.

Old Father Time for ages sought These pillared marbles, strangely wrought : — Now roofed above with green clad hills, Adown their steeps leap joyous rills.

In pearl or rose-red coral banks, The dear old homes are cheap as thanks ; Come, pre-empt grand, high chambers formed In this great fortress we have stormed!

Fierce winds have battered at our doors, Great tidal waves swept stone laid floors; Hot suns looked on with burning gaze ; — Our strong towers stand from ancient days.

Come where the sea-kissed white and red, Grew marble branches high o'erhead; Stone woods so strong and stoutly made, This shore in their wide arms is laid !

Was it a living, conscious voice I heard? Were old, deep realms of mystery strangely

stirred ? Is low, aspiring life proved far more wide Than onward movement of the human tide? Or, should a saner mood weak dream? deride^

SEA DRIFT^ 145

As in a dream, I rose and slowly walked, I wandered on the ancient coral shore, And rested on the old and faded sands. My listening heart turned toward the vanished

past. The waiting storm breathed mist and distant

ram ; Long, heaving billows slowly rose and plunged, To leap again with more determined spring.

Far off, against the sky, moved strange blurred forms Which grew to chariot shape, black horses

drawn. Steeds restless, champing monstrous flecks of

foam. And rearing till they seemed to stand upright. An august driver stood erect and large, His mild eyes seemed to drink the darkness up, His smile shot through the pageant, mist en- wrapped. On either side, like pictured triton sons. Loomed forms which kept abreast of his ad- vance ; And in the rear, as dark clouds vanishing. And showing clear again by cumbrous leaps, A strange and freakish ghostly following.

146 SEA DRIFT.

My heart throbbed hard and cried, "Ah, can it

be What I have thought was but a dying myth, The sea-god Neptune and his dolphin crew, And faithful whales, who love his neighborhood ! Oh, are these more than rough, cloud-kissing

waves?"

A voice as deep as Ocean's bass and sweet As Alpine horn, far-echoing replied. And all the troubled air grew still to hear.

NEPTUNE.

I am Neptime, from my warmer land-locked sea ; But I ride the deep blue whole wide ocean

through ; Every scene you please, come find at nearer

view ! All their charming wonders waiting long for

you ;

Come and ride with me.

I'll command the raging storm- waves far off flee, Raise you grandest tempests just as you desire. Court you worlds of glittering icebergs till you

tire. Find you largess under the Equator's fire, If you ride with me.

SEA DRIFT. 147

I can make soft days like brilliant fancies free ; Make all the deep sea plains rare marvel givers; Ride full against or with sea's gliding rivers; Bear you triumphant through all tidal shivers; Will you ride with me?

In the olden wealth of sea-god's majesty, In high royal pomp of long acknowledged power, Little loved we freakish mist as sea-gift dower Courting sunshine, or the grander tempest hour, They v/ho rode with me.

Bowing gladly new to shade-sweet destiny, Veiled in gathering films of gray soft dreaminess. Wooing only old-time memories' caress. Through the lovely haunts of yore, wide-eyed, on press

All who ride with me.

Gray old Neptune from the warmer, land-locked

sea; Still I roam the deep blue, whole wide ocean

through, All the glorious changes, every nearer view. And my world of wonders wait how long for

youl

Could you ride with me!

148 SEA DRIFT.

Most strangely towards the sea-god turned my heart ; My heavy feet seemed rooted in the sand, And sinking deeper as I heard with awe. Half kneeling I could only shake my head, And bowing shame-faced, try to gaze afar ; But with a gracious wave of majesty, With a half smile, that wondrous living Myth Drew curtains of thick mist about his head And cloud-enfolded his strange retinue; And slowly, softly sank the pageant host Beneath the waves, leaving a silver glow That spread like lingering twilight far and near.

A thousand soft, sweet voices seemed to speak ; As every water drop half talked, half sang, With soul and feeling of its very own. And living out its own soft, sensuous life — The tones all mingled in the old full swell Of Ocean's plashing, rhythmic melody; Yet heard in multitudes by listening ear. The hum of city marts, where every voice Has burdened utterance its very own, Declaring feeling, purpose, urgent hopes; But swelling in one commonwealth of sound, Is but the larger, harsher duplicate Of these small voices in the joyful sea — Remote from care as zenith from the Earth.

SEA DRIFT. 149

It made me know these too, may climb up higher

In other realms of sentience than ours,

That like our own is nurtured in the love

Of one abounding, tender sympathy.

The changing sea its vesper service held

In praise and gratitude as real as ours,

With not a note of jangling bells untuned.

The wooing sweetness drew my wondering heart Almost from out my bosom as I knelt. I bent my head in listening reverence To catch the least of this deep mystery I might not fathom ; though I heard and felt Sweet voices whispering: ''Come and learn!"

But something nearer said : ''Your own work waits ! To each is given share of help for all, Uplifting far dependent worlds hairs' breadth, In sentience beautiful beyond compare! To each his own well ordered, fitting realm, More varied than all voices of the sea, Or winds, and trees, and men, and wordless

brutes ; Than all the changes great Earth knows ! Feeling and thought their many mansions have In the vast kingdom of increasing life;

150 SEA DRIFT.

And in them all, is immanent the Life of life!

The One in all, as all in One, — all win!

Hold then, and keep your own great heritage."

I rose as clothed anew in strength and hope, Though wooing voices came on every wave, Inviting me to join their cheerful bands. — An urgent, more insistent company, With pleasing clang of cymbals, beating time, Eager and joyous, cried: "Force on a march! Onward! onward, somewhere to the great un- known, Where marvels of new joyous life await!" As one would gladly fly with swift-winged birds To summer lands, my longing heart would go With all of them.

I hear new voices, calling Like flutter of the wings of humming birds, With breath of lilies at the Christmastide, And strain my eyes to catch their brightness too; For charms of tint and tone should win together.

But troubled, jarring sounds break harshly in, Deep sobs of heart-break and accursing cries. Do crowds of mourners weep their early dead?

SEA DRIFT, 151

Now, startling visions rise of countless forms; Stray voyagers stumbling on the shores of life; Coming through all the ages ; dropping down From sea's far borders to its lowest beds ! I see the doomed Armada from old Spain — Strong ships, men stained with war's red blus- tering;— They fall like crimson leaves to Ocean's deep And scatter like dead leaves in autumn storm. Great ships from plundered Africa sink low As weighted by their crimes; and swaying,

plunge Far down to deepest caverns darkness knows — Captors and captives huddled side by side.

Nearer, more near, draw fearful tragedies. The great sea boiling like the pit of hate, Engulfing everything within its power ; Its fairest shores by desolation swept. Rich scores of ships, ten times ten thousand

lives, Beloved and loving, strong in rectitude ; — On cheerful journeys brief, with harmless babes ; Outward bound for castles in far Spain ; Homeward bound, with hearts gone forward —

all ranks In tempest and in calm, drawn down, drawn

down.

152 SEA DRIFT.

And smothered in the awful surge of waves ! They come and come, and not with wilHng feet, Like driftwood on the rushing stream of time; But no more go they off from Ocean's floor.

THE TIDAL WAVE.

Yonder a monstrous chain of Hfted waves. Vast heaving mountains, grim and black and

torn. With foothills flanked; below great yawning

caves ; They all move on together, whirlwind born. And writhe and writhe, but never break. Low

overhead. Sharp lightnings waken thunders deep and

dread. That wall of awful might outspeeds the wind, Outspeeds the darkness with its shafts of light ; Glooms on beneath a sky windswept and bright, Leaving a wrack of angry clouds behind.

As hosts of raging bitterness caroused. It roars in terror, sweeping nigh, more nigh A seaside, sleeping town, but half aroused ! It reels ! it plunges from a starlit sky And in a twinkling all are overwhelmed.

SEA DRIFT. 153

A city's thousand dreaming souls unrealmed In seething flood of wreckage! Crashing

towers, The broken homes afloat, denuded farms, An upturned forest tossing long, green arms — Men grappling vainly with the awesome powers !

"Is not here bitterness no sweet can change ? Can virtues grand and many whitewash wrong? Noblesse oblige should govern God's nobility. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right !" I cried.

My eyes were opened as the sun Breaks through the clouds, flooding the world

with light. I seemed to look through vistas clear and wide ; Thought urged, resistless : — "Who has found the

heart Of our own ever burning, blinding sun ? — Then, shall we challenge Him who swings aloft Those million, million yonder glorious suns In climbing spiral rounds? No human skill Nor thought can wind again one spent pale

moonbeam ! Weak plaints are but the little carping chirp Of shrewish insects on a summer's day.

154 SEA DRIFT,

Till we can trace the farthest path of worlds Winding along the open chart of space In full revealing glow of kindly light, Shall we assume to fathom purposes Still sleeping shadows in the arms of night? How dare we claim to pierce the misty folds Of nascent time not yet in swaddling clothes, And question Wisdom that has filled with light The ever present now that holds all times ! Who spans the limitless with his inch rule? If men by honest men can be misjudged, Small doubt that we may misinterpret God, Whose plans unfold to us in lines of growth.

"Mankind, like bats, are blinded by a light Too strong for their unwonted eyes to bear, And careful folk may stumble in the glare As in the dark. Better Agnostic rust Than blinded Will and its poor dogmatism !

"Courage that dares to seek the future's best May seem the present's worst and crudest ; For highest virtues oft are registered as crime. Farsightedness, with outlook far beyond its time. Must bare its head to meet nearsighted scorn. The moral heroes choose untimely good Which leaves the noblest deeds the most con- demned.

SEA DRIFT. 155

Till wiser thought has overtaken them,

And twined its laurels round their monuments.

Patience is that diviner attribute

That waits the growth of slow intelligence

To win escape from needless tragedies."

Upholding only Nature's penalties, The Ocean needs no taunts and no reproach. Rash health, lawless, can lay its vigor down In arms that clasp; shrinking from hard reproof No more than pale disease worn thin with care, Or pains that make poor life intolerable. The youngest sinless babe may fall on sleep Beside old neighbors of the patriarch Noah ; Weak, guilty suicide, and murder's guilt. Crowd heroes panoplied in high estate That might have won them nation's monuments ; High dames, in beauty's prime, with jeweled

robes Which shame the noblest pearls of Ocean's

wealth, And tattered pariahs in their old worn rags, Are welcomed with one equal majesty.

How like the helper of our checkered lives ! He never chides; but piles his barrier high With pains, and needless loss and sufferings. To bar out greater ills — more dire distress ;

156 SEA DRIFT.

To hold crass ignorance within just bounds, Lest it more overreach sweet innocence.

The Sea respects as God's high wisdom does, The guarded, prized integrity of each ; His meed of freedom and his waiting choice, His gain of offered knowledge, manifold.

To man and beast and lowly creeping thing, To all who breathed and breathe sweet air no

more, Ocean gives free and willing sepulture, And nudeness wraps in soft and flowing shrouds. All share alike the couch of dreamless rest — And all must somewhere sleep — in earth or

main.

Ocean unfolds the whole great rounded world, His clasping arms encircle, then, all death — Fitting, as birthplace of the earliest life. Thus all the ages share one final couch. Where, as with God, a thousand years are but a

day. No earthly crown so mighty and august As the sealed peace and rest on every brow. Regal in state their vast sarcophagus !

Need any eye reverse the telescope And only care to see the world made small?

SEA DRIFT. 157

Folly will drag her chains of ignorance Till she has broken them and mastered ills That hurt us needlessly. But Nature's laws If learned, and well obeyed, bring only good.

The tonsured billows lifted pleading hands, Then humbly dropped in meek obscurity.

Glad Ocean stirred again in joyous mood, Threw up long sprays of beauty; scattered free Clear Sapphires, kindled by warm rays of light ; And clouds of evening, hanging high above, Rose-shadows dropped on darker purple waves — A lovely sea of reawakened peace. I, searching into knotted mysteries, Heard mellowed sound in full, soft cadences ; To grieving heart, unnerved by piteous woes, As comforting as songs among the pines.

KELPIES.

When from clasp of ocean wave. You of earth would kindred save. Dream no more that dark revenge Kelpies plot by our stonehenge;

158 SEA DRIFT.

Friendly arms around them cling, Purest breath our clear waves bring, Nothing asking but their good; Why is tender, loving kindness long misunder- stood ?

Welcome freely offer we. Kelpies, children of the sea; Welcome free to treasure trove Over dropped from heights above ; Welcome to our jeweled strands, Richer than your golden sands; Bright our wave-washed amber home; Can there be a better world beneath the sky's blue dome?

Gliding smoothly through the brine, Living gems, our fishes shine; Gay hued weeds, bright coral banks. Shells in costumes, ranks on ranks. Color draped and silver lined. Charm of rich wrought forms combined! Fair sea lilies wide outfling Crimson fringes, bright with beauty past earth's blossoming.

Could our welcome kindlier be, To these royal homes in sea ?

SEA DRIFT, 159

Bliss and space ! and room for you ! Come or stay, free choice is due. Gay with Hfe's sweet joy we rove, Shining raiment, water wove, Robes us all, awake, asleep — Why not share the largess of our vibrant, bound- less deep?

As we live we pray you live, All we have, in kind we give; In our billows far and wide, Joys and hopes to more divide. Like your sea beach, many pebbled ; Even eyesight doubled, trebled! Kelpies oft themselves have spied. In the blue-green clearest crystal, smiling mul- tiplied.

160 SEA DRIFT.

XI.

Everything has its soul. Its wrong and its right ;

Each heart has its goal, The stars cheer its night.

And its lessons unroll As the dawning of light.

We recognize the high integrity That dares uphold the smallest timid bay In equal dignity with thy great wealth, Ocean — at level height with thy broad plain ! No feeblest inlet, clinging to thy arm. No narrow strait, or tiny gulf, may fall Below the broad right line upheld by thee; Nor sufferest thou one column, at thy side, Though slender as a reed in early spring. To lose thy rank and sink to lower grade, Thy kindred born in wide democracy! Least line of change would make the great earth

rock In horror ; turning from thy waywardness.

SEA DRIFT. 161

Why have not human folk more bravely learned This greatest lesson thou hast nobly taught? Why hold we not in charity as fine, The feeblest of our race, sin stained or white, To heritage of one humanity, With all its glory full, alight and warm ; Up-raising them with kindliest discipline, And binding all in high divinity?

Our poor and thoughtless deeds breed sooty

mists, Dark writhing clouds, that veil our sight, Staining our best, and breeding nameless ills. We cramp our measures of capacity ! Too slowly grows the perfect wealth of life ; And needless tears have swelled the ocean's

deep!

Better it is, with things inanimate. Not wakened yet to active hope and thought. To narrowest breadth of living consciousness ; There, Nature weaves pure webs of excellence — If well and generously interpreted — Measure for measure, ever her demand ; She works on lines of order's perfect law, In full beneficence without one flaw.

162 SEA DRIFT.

The wordless and the boneless things, that feel Life's joys and pains, can break no moral law ; Weak man, alone, still plucks forbidden fruit And gathers dowers of dark, hard penalties.

At last, the keen and subtle eye of soul, Will justly measure Nature's good and bad ; For mind is learning her hard lessons, too, And claims them treasure more than Ophir's

gold. Justice and love brought face to face in

thought ; Hand holding hand, as both have ever wrought, How beautiful and strong their glorious work ! Tliey learn to mend all places frayed and weak. They supplement the lack of each and all, They turn the charcoal back to diamond white.

Oh, changing, changeless Ocean, great Unrest ! How weak the form of man within thy grasp ; A crowing baby raised on giant's palm ; A leaf in combat with a swelling flood, A paper boat, afloat in shrewish air. All his proud ships are bubbles thou canst break ; Yet Mind, man's mind, will master Ocean's

pride And conquer all the turmoils of wild seas, By wisdom calm as full-orbed harvest moon! The shades of night have lingered far too long!

SEA DRIFT. 163

IN THE DARK.

Thick night-clouds settled down, then weary day In sable hood her aged head reclined ; All forms — like morning's glow — were swept away, With not a lingering hill or tree outlined.

The deadly nightshade kept an open eye.

The poisoned fungus rose and stretched apace ;

All parasites would live, thc'r hosts might die — Rank, greedy hunger stealing life and place.

The bats flapped by and woke uncanny things ;

Poor giddy moths flew round and round, insane. Eager to burn their pretty gauzy wings

Should flame of ignis fatuus come again.

Blind moles delved on in secret, burrowing ways, Earthworms crawled up, black beetles hurtled

by,

Horned owls went foraging for sleeping prey, And all the world seemed breathing with a sigh.

164 SEA DRIFT.

The sea was wrapped in horror deep and dense, Uncanny gleams shot balefuUy by starts,

ReveaHng darkness held in dread suspense And pierced by fearful alien darts.

Black night may reign, a rayless, massive whole. All outlets closed to vistas fair and white ;

High barriers hide the way to final goal

And faith stand beaten back by blinded sight.

Hope, blinded, may not find life's Eastern ray, And starless Hades spread its waste of gloom

Where failing voices, dreaming, seem to say: "The brooding darkness has no sunny room."

Guilt seeks a taint in loveliest flower and leaf, Hunts lines of darkness in the purest light,

Shades stillest day with tempest sad as grief; It duplicates the black and moonless night.

Deep searching — restless born — like rings of smoke

May dash straight on to rock, or crag, or main ; Uncover reefs, and nameless dread evoke

Till farthest outreach useless seems and vain.

SEA DRIFT. 165

But wait ; Time's moving cycle slowly rounds, Day follows night. All fair things grow again ;

New light comes streaming on from farther bounds, New truth is born of unbelief and pain.

In frigid, farthest, dreary North and South, Like wasted diamonds heaped on pulseless

breast. Ocean, thy waves are locked in moveless calm. Spreading their icy acres of white worlds, Supine and helpless as the hardest rocks, While sleet of threaded steel bites deep and

binds. Not bravest mother seals dare venture here To nurse their callow young in cairns of doom. The softer ice-banks, towards the warmer lands, Afford them rugged hospitality, And kindly tvelcome giving all who need, Blush piteous crimson over fierce male wars. The blessed sunshine, melting noontide dews, Washes the hideous shame to white again ; And Nature smiles once more in her relief. But here, the seal of frozen time, deep set. No sun has melted it since first rose dawn.

166 SEA DRIFT.

ICEFIELD LAMENT.

Not one stir of life our granted boon, Not a subtle wave of change we feel ;

Glitter, cold as pearl on midnight moon, Folds us, holds us, with a hand of steel.

Buried now in long night's darkest shroud, Petrifaction claims us for his own ;

We, with priceless wealth of change endowed, Wait for weary ages, turned to stone.

In the warm and genial teeming seas.

Where the fair Sea Islands bloom and smile ;

Where the dark-skinned people live at ease. Storms, the too responsive seas beguile.

Fleets of sea-nursed, floating birds.

Brooding calm amid tempestuous waves;

Billows fall as by the Master's word :

"Peace ! be still !" — outside the tempest raves.

Then may weeping pity sometime break. Frozen chains, too frail for endless doom.

And our charmed world in warmth awake, Wrapped in generous beauty's living bloom?

SEA DRIFT. 167

Borealis wavers in the sky, And with pitying Heaven mediates ;

Startles echoes Hke a wailing cry, Half in mockery, beckons, scintillates.

Wistful ennui broods in hearts of ice, Nature's opiate holds each pulse in calm ;

Lightning, locked within by her device, Slumbers, cushioned on her frozen palm.

Spirit bright of restless, eager steam,

Shorn of use and chained to moveless rest,

Folds his reaching arms to nurse a dream — Nothing wakes within his frozen breast.

Tempest, biting, wailing overhead,

Heaped and hoary plains lie prone and still — Pallid substance, fallen stark and dead,

Feeling, numb alike to good and ill.

Something whispers : ''Better days in store, When the soft winds warmly, gently blow !"

We shall break the bonds of death once more, Forth on active service bound to go.

When time is ripe to wake in active hope, Does Nature plant the gift of prophecy In deepest heart of all she claims her own?

168 SEA DRIFT.

Activity and human skill must wrest These diamond strands of palsied helpfulness From weary, age-long inutility, Winning rare treasures from these frigid zones; Mind — thought and purpose — learn to conquer

all That is or shall be of the Earth or Sea ; Glad feeling, impulse gives to guiding thought. And love will brighten all with sunny warmth Of daffodils ablaze in newborn spring.

But Ocean may not do this work alone ; That task is ours and man's commission waits ; Mayhap all powers will yet co-operate !

Be sure the frozen zones of Sea and Earth Will melt in genial dews of blessedness! Greenness will overspread the barren wastes, And blossoms smile their wakened joy anew; Bright waves will lift again their crested brows, And kneel again at welcome feet of shore Laughing with lilies and exuberance ! Nature herself, with man to teach her how, In time, will work this gracious miracle ! And life, which seems most dead, will live that

day To celebrate in song its later birth,

i

SEA DRIFT. 169

When thought shall govern things, and dares

direct. The aeons pass, but each one surely bears Supernal heritage of crowning bliss.

IN THE LIGHT.

The morning star burned on till rising day, Its smiling brightness softly swept away, Robed hilltops and gray clouds in red and gold, And wide the opal gates of dawn unrolled.

Song-birds, on wing, pour melody like rain Adown the sky and over hill and plain ; A newborn greenness rivals heavenly blue. And old sweet miracles are proven true.

Just waking blossoms open eyes of light, All growing things look radiant with delight ; High childish voices float off far and wide, Grave older hearts rejoice with morning tide.

The trees and fields, half veiled in drifting sheen, A rainbow's copied brightness gems the green ; The whole wide landscape and the smiling air All faded things make beautiful and fair.

170 SEA DRIFT.

Old Ocean blazes ; glorious morning sight ! Each wavelet 'caps in music and delight; And near and far, farther than eye can reach, The great Sea rings soft anthems clear as speech.

Revealer Light, at dawning, tries to teach A structural order with an endless reach ; Nor, plainer seen are plant, or flower, or bird, Than clear as bells her living voice is heard.

Light's pointing index finger moves with time, Outlining golden paths in every clime, Twines shining clues in every tangled maze, And leads straight on through all untrodden ways.

To each, his lesson learned, seems wondrous

clear, He knows himself the teacher, guide and seer; In Nature's unveiled face securely looks, And reads her mysteries in open books.

Ocean of countless bright facilities, I hear in deepest bass, solemn — "Amen," As echoed from vast depths of thankfulness In all the majesty of thy full voice.

i

SEA DRIFT. I'M

Long hast thou sent thy warmest currents far To melt and mend the stubborn frozen zones ; And all thou couldst hast done with generous

zeal Of one who has enough and much to spare.

Sustaining granite to the fruitful earth, How facik are thy modes of helpfulness ! Diverse as icebergs and sweet flowers of June ; As Nature — blind, or taught by open eyes When they have found the keys of boundless

help, And re-create the world on higher planes. A truth once found can rarely be forgot ; The great Earth fosters it as fruitful seed. And plants its offspring in a thousand fields ; And all dull hindrances when taught to move, Become, in turn, the whole world's motive

power.

OUR HERITAGE.

The hurts we feel are manifold;

Life spreads her mighty shadowing wing To brood the storm clouds, black and cold,

And overcast untimely spring.

173 SEA DRIFT.

But life's great hopes are countless more;

Warm sunshine overflows the clouds ! Called back, joys press through memory's door,

And shining stand in waiting crowds.

As evening fades, so fades distress, The good devours the transient ills;

Courage, reborn in painful stress. Life's widt horizon stores and fills.

If all our woes were multiplied. The thorns in every wound fourfold,

The best would triumph magnified;

The mornings dawn with wealth untold.

And they who reach the sunny side Above the clouds — our promised land — •

Will read Earth's tumults — satisfied; And Time's dark lessons understand.

Catastrophes breed quickened energies. And barrenness compels the cultured grain ! If frozen zones were not, could daring men Court hardships in the deeps of polar gloom. To ease the longing of mankind to know What seas and lands and wonders harbor there? Could Earth afford to lose such hero's deeds,

SEA DRIFT. 173

Unstained by crimson blush of angry steel ? If tempests never raged, nor ships went down With freightage dear to human hearts, Prudence were shorn of strength, forecast un- born, And learned seacrift still but dullard toil — Compass unknown, high calculation dumb. And lore of stars feeble and callow-winged. Were sore disease, contagion, wounded flesh. Poor bones that break, and nameless pain

unfelt, The skill to heal and help had slept till now Unwakened; senseless as the sleep of stones. How closely knowledge waits on sharp desire! The heart's own craving prophesies success.

Hard problems test man's noblest faculties ; And duty bids him know and rule the world. Wise Nature's dark, inciting mysteries. Her hidden secrets, challenging our search. Her teasing problems, mocking till they're

solved. Spur on the eager mind to delve and think. And conquer, step by step, the great unknown. Superfluous ease ensnares the weakling will; Great obstacles awake reactions great. As fulcrums help mankind to move the world. And give the warrant to enforce their calm.

174 SEA DRIFT,

One born with all the wisdom of the world, Might live in ennui, craving early death ! The zest of industry is life's best good. If knowledge might be plucked like wildwood

flowers And Nature, nursed by her decaying leaves, The Earth were still an aimless wilderness. Insight a blinded guide, talents most rare Lie folded still in napkins of the past.

Pain often leads as harbinger of gain ! Oysters encyst their hurts in sunny pearls. Some broken worms grow whole from every

piece. And wounded plants increase by duplicates. With men, for wounds and hardships multiplied, New growth may germinate for head and heart ; The clearer light, producing fairer blooms — New hopes and joys, whose rootlets grew in

pain. So compensation crowns the strenuous life!

THE OCEAN.

Great servitor, of endless vast beneficence, Brother to starry nights' untold magnificence, Be loyal homage due, and grateful confidence J

SEA DRIFT. 175

Sweet humility, by lowly presence teaching, Gracious charity to all the world outreaching, Cleanliness creating, practising and preaching ;

Circumventing time, checkmating wind and

weather, Drawing foreign lands, as nearest kin, together. Binding foreign hearts by strong fraternal

tether ;

Present, ready helper, countless fleets sustain- ing;

Storm winds wildly rising, every muscle strain- ing,—

Calm in tempest, whispers, faithlessness arraign- ing.

176 SEA DRIFT.

XII.

Ocean, bright omnipresent gift to Earth, Distilled in clearest limpid purity, In benediction borne to every home, The crystal freshness of our childhood's draught, For which all thirst and ever thirst again, To quaff again of bounteous supply ; — Thou "greater" Ocean of our home-nursed love, Fountain of joy to brutes and creeping things. Unbound; unbounded thou, and measured not. Sweet lifeblood flowing in the veins of Earth.

All waters claim thee, call thee ancestor. Swelling thy unmatched, world-encircling

wealth. The rivers leap in sunshine as they run In haste to thee, children to father's arms; The lakes, thy weaned children, far from home, Close copy thy great ways in miniature. And serve the hills about whose feet they kneel ; Deep streamlets bathe the dull, insensate veins Of clay, of sands, and cloven rugged rocks.

SEA DRIFT. 1T7

Pouring rich floods of fruitful nourishment

To quicken all who live upon the earth.

Thy springs leap high in gladness and delight,

Bright, priceless offspring of parental gifts.

Refined and vivified to worth untold;

For which the dying long with failing breath,

And they who lack would change all other

wealth ; For which the famished waif, would give life's

bread To its last morsel, glad, with eager choice! Cool, best refreshment thou alone canst give. Thy dear gifts more than golden stars at night.

What words have I to sing such comforting? The full sonorous chant of white crowned tides. All generous throes that wake thy tender breast, And beat in full, responsive sympathy With every movement wrought in earth or skies, When retranslated into rural sounds, Gain borrowed voices, softer than thine own, Haunting the leaves of never silent trees. Caught up by waiting movement — kin with kin — Sent out to cheer waste deserts with moist

breath Of green oases, by thy springs made glad; Mimicked in long drawn sweetness by the air;

178 SEA DRIFT.

Treasured in peaceful, safe-locked heart of

stones, Yet loosed in many tones through all the world, These bless low cottage homes with endless

songs, And woo all living things with ears to hear.

VOICES.

One's heart endorses A brooklet choir

Of liquid voices ; Each drop a lyre.

But breathing life Of dell and hill.

Is music rife — Song never still.

A flower can whisper, In tones so clear.

The bright robed lisper Fills eye and ear.

Nothing is mute

To sound's pure thrill, Each leaf, a flute

That's never still.

SEA DRIFT. 179

Slow chanting catches

The gay winged throng; Each sea shell snatches

An endless song.

On young moon night,

Vocal the air; The harp of light

Playing — up there.

Spider-craft, spinning,

Weaving in songs; Every note winning,

Echo prolongs.

Change never dulse,

Joyous must ring The low, rhythmic pulse

Of everything.

Great benefactor, apotheosized In wandering mist, water more glorified And soaring heavenward on the wings of light ; Clear, soft, impervious partner of the air, Folding down warmth about the sleeping fields ; Thou movest in aspiring sap of trees, Clothing their rugged brown with silken grace

180 SEA DRIFT.

Which waves to every breeze its emerald wealth. Up-builder of all sweet-breath'd blossoming, And brightness in the shyest floweret's smile; Thou art preserver of the fruitful seeds, Freshness and bloom in all the fragrant fields, And Mercury of each progressive change. Fair water! water! gift to all the world!

Sustainer of the swift-winged life in air; Of creeping plodders nearest mother Earth ; Helper of quadrupedal clumsiness And fleeter footed dwellers of the wilds; Most bountiful in tides of human life, Which leap in joyous flow from youth to age; Support and stay of every heart that beats.

Power, immanent in all our daily bread, Vitality in air that fans our lungs, The dew of life in every breath we breathe ; Soft verve and r^hancy of ears that hear, And brightness in the very eyes that see Thy wind-swept face in its great majesty; Fresh beauty in the rounded limbs of youth, But oil and wine for desiccated age; Cushion and spur and balm for weariness ; Brightness and grace, enfolding dry as dust; Scapegoat for all the soil and stains we take — All ages lean on thee, their staff of life.

SEA DRIFT. 181

Thy tender sympathy should be as deep As mother love for her own helpless babe, More omnipresent than sweet charity, Inseparable as wedded North and South.

Enmeshed in every net the swift looms weave, Drawn out in every pliant thread that serves. Folded in all the seams and fringes wrought, In silken facings of our meanest dress ; We're clothed upon by thy pervasiveness. We move in thee, breathing thy humid breath — Like humbler kinsfolk in thy denser flood.

Our tribute then should glow with warmth of love! But foolish zeal is born incompetent; Its wings but wax that melts with fervent heat. No life could live without fraternity Among both great and small ; the mighty ones And lesser helpers working neighborly, In stress and strain of common heritage; But gifts to each are his inviolate.

Hast thou one equal in pure helpfulness? Worker unseen in subtle myriad ways, With modesty which veils its noblest deeds. And hides behind the forms itself has formed. As spirit clothes itself in grosser flesh,

183 SEA DRIFT.

The smallest child instinctively approves The lavish tempting gifts of milk and fruits Delicious only by thy presence there. Kindly translated thus to household friend, And generous helper of all growing lives, Servant of servants thou hast always been. Like Him of Nazareth both in life and death. There are no words can voice our debt to thee.

Should feeling sleep beneath a growing weight Of such indebtedness ? the zest of life Is glad emotion, warm and generous, And shared! outflowing into kindred lives In floods of large fraternal sympathy. And love clings close to things inanimate Through common bonds of wondrous interest, And helpful service given ungrudgingly.

Thou art near ancestor to all mankind In every nerve and sinew! Bone and flesh To thee are wedded by unbreaking bonds. For thou hast always wrought, as heroes do, In man*s behalf! We owe thee gratitude, And more than gladly would repay fourfold ! Our tribute due should rise in lilting songs As blithesome as the white winged moving

clouds. As musical as running waters are;

SEA DRIFT. 183

And fragrant as the early morning's breath When in the night watch falling rains have

washed The hot and dusty air to purest fair — If doing would but wait on fervent choice !

As thy bright waves reflect in scattered bits And fleeting pictures, changing skies above, We hold up broken mirrors of thy ways Trying to frame the comprehensive whole. But like gives like. The waters share thy voice Parceled in small; their songs wake sleeping earth.

THE RIVULETS.

"Haste to Father !" sing the rills, Babbling, laughing, with soft trills. Carving green banks in bright doubles, Whirling eddies, blowing bubbles; Tossing slender beads of light, Carding wool to fleecy white. Plunging on with reckless dash, Into swirling river's clash ; "Brother Great-Stream, faster! faster! Help us down to waters vaster ! See! we trust our all to you Till we bathe in Ocean's blue!

184 SEA DRIFT.

'Willows weeping, rillside bushes, Cardinal flowers and blue eyed rushes, Islands green where streamlets blend, Kine and sheep, each one a friend, Evening concerts in the trees, Wooded hill-slopes, vales of ease. Where we tumbled headlong down Into smiling steeple town. Where the children laugh and play; — All we love, we left to-day !

"Like the wandering winds we roam. Hurrying onward toward our home. Brother Great-Stream, faster ! faster ! Help all obstacles to master; Till we take again our part In the great paternal heart. Tempest there or flowing calm, Wandering life give zest and balm; Long the way and long the waiting Father love and reinstating!"

THE RIVERS.

"Children, you have brought us treasure. We, too, wrought with generous might;

Now with foaming, brimming measure, On we sweep in glad delight!

SEA DRIFT. 185

"From upbubbling springs, from currents Running dark beneath the rocks;

Through the hills and plains in torrents We'll come round on time, like clocks.

"We, too, slept in peaceful valley,

Down the hillsides leaped with pride.

On through mightiest plains and alleys. Great ships floating on our tide.

"Father Ocean, we are coming. Rolling far our wealth of floods!

Like the doves awing, we're homing; Welcome give thy rustling broods !

"Wide the world, of wondrous beauties, Arching sky is everywhere.

Shaming poor neglect of duties Smiling down as on we fare.

"Bright and pleasant banks forsaking, Glad we lose ourselves in thee ;

Joyous till our reawaking —

Winged for blue sky's jubilee."

186 SEA DRIFT.

THE LAKES.

"Must we linger?" blue lakes sing,

"Shining, dreaming? Moving winds new ripples bring,

White hope creaming.

"Rills and rivers roll towards Ocean,

Dancing, rushing; Geysers all alive with motion,.

Laugh, up-gushing.

"Mighty cataracts, down flashing,

Movement plighted. Rainbow crowned and cymbals clashing,

Wild! delighted!

"Seek in haste and all unresting,

Sea's enfolding; 'Life is motion !' all attesting

Craving, holding.

"Clearest mist-waifs floating up,

Meet thine, Father ; Small hands clasp in amber cup,

Cloudlets gather.

SEA DRIFT. 187

"In the pure blue, on they fare,

Rose of dawning; Floating, sailing high in air,

Breath of morning.

"Briefest rest in dainty poise —

Onward flitting; May we taste their changing joys.

Hills outwitting?

"Brightest rain-drops downward glide.

Rounded beauty ; Mid our green hills must we hide.

Chained to duty ?

"Onward flow, our streams shall know,

Channel their way ; Toward thee, Father, proudly go ;

Move on, we may !"

Concordant songs thy many waters raise In mingled tribute to their parent source ; The swift, strong winds join in with wondrous

voice, Grateful for thy unmeasured outspread plains, O'er which they sweep with wildest will un-

checkedj

188 SEA DRIFT.

To meet with leagues of quick responsiveness. No wonder envious moon, sorely bereft, Should turn away her face in sad regret That thou art lost to all her barren shores.

Great Ocean's chant is ever dominant, And silei.t never. Moving fingers play On myriads of vast responsive harps — Australia, capes of southern hemispheres, Alaska, Labrador, Siberia; The wide and winding reach of endless shores ; And every island of the tuneful sea Re-echoes ceaselessly the vibrant voice That fills the throbbing air with melody ; They blend in one unbroken whole To greet the ear of far-off listening space. When Ocean's tones swell high, all voices hush To hear the one great chorus of the world, That upward sweeps to Heaven's own gates in praise !

SEA DRIFT. 189

XIII.

Transcendent gift to our responsive earth And its enfolding gkbe of atmosphere, Which else must clothe the world in barrenness ; Ocean, we learned to love thy clear and shining

face Of beryl, amethyst, and sky's own blue On shoreless mid-seas' lost expanse, blended

with sky. Essence concentrate thine as rocky cliffs That overhang thee with their beetling crags And cast reflections on the crimson glow Of smiles as sweet as sunshine's morning

smiles — Rich setting for rich real and ideal wealth That nothing rivals, nothing duplicates! — Thy mighty voices shake the listening world; Yet thou dost raise free vapors, silver winged, Outbound in silence deep as flight of time — Vapors which clothe the earth in humid warmth Of silken linings for the too thin air, Vapors ethereal like the breath of space. Yet barring Ether's cold and arid drought — Pattern and type of purest sinlessness.

190 SEA DRIFT.

Thy sea-born roses — morning's fresh delight — The golden lilies in thy clasping arms, Fresh blossoming ere verdant Nature wakesi And scatters spikenard with her clustered dews; Thy more prolonged and glorious good night Of gold and rainbows on the darkening blue, Ere evening draws the curtains of her tents To give deep rest to all unseasoned young; — We love these pomps of thy far spreading plains. Reflex of vistas in the skies above.

But love moves on with thy ethereal mists Sent up in affluence of unbounded charity — Our love expanding, as they, too, expand To fill the cisterns of the upper deep, And overflow the fields of gladdened space.

VAPOR SONG.

In sunny ambient air afloat.

As glad as sky-lark's loftiest note;

Above the faintest din of strife.

Almost in disembodied life;

From clear-eyed azure field, we raise,

To one Omniscient Care, all praise.

Our shining Earth, fair wrapped in glow Bright sun and moon by turns bestow,

SEA DRIFT. 191

Moves round and on by perfect law; And life and gain unceasing draw Their stronger breath, their deeper bliss ; For knowledge blooms in happiness.

Sky's broader outlook — not then dreamed — Low, water level changes, seemed Purposeless — rhjthr.i of flow, reflow — Unmeaning farce, and dull, and slow, With neither good nor ill enwrought. Or by their shifting phases taught.

Driven, we seemed, in endless ring; By thirsty fields lapped up in spring; In autumn, masked with red and gold ; Made winter's glass by winter's cold; Or else, unnerved as gasping steam. Collapsing, dying — a lost dream.

Now, hand held fast in hand, we fall Ensphered fresh rain, at Nature's call. Run spiral rounds, which love arranges. As help to life's uplifting changes. If weeping pageant, swift we come. Our smiles revive the Earth's green home!

In wide-eyed, ambient sky afloat. Joyous as sky-lark's purest note ;

192 SEA DRIFT.

In growing vision far and rife, In almost disembodied life, From fields of light and hope, we raise To His Omniscience trustful praise!

1

Ocean, these waifs of time at Heaven's gate, When disembodied most, most free to join The strong co-workers fitted to their needs; Combining flight towards new and large suc- cess— These busy waifs of thine whose wings are

flame. When disembodied most, the most alert ; As lightning, when at work, is naked flash. But crooked line, yet seething competence ; — When disembodied most, most near their Source, His image clearest shown as archtype — When disembodied most, most near to soul ; These busy waifs of thine, impalpable. Intangible to keenest sight or sense. Are they thy errant, work-commissioned

thoughts. Which do thy will by recreating forms. And brightening earth with gardens of rare bloom ?

SEA DRIFT. 193

They're unborn fiber of the evening dews, Of pearl pale ferns, wrought daintily at night To die of joy at early sunshine's kiss ; Of white stern icebergs, grown as hard of heart As mountains on the fruitless moon; awesome. And grand Hke them, with beauties all their own ; Of snows which clothe brown earth in ermine

soft, To shelter winsome things that hide in fear B'eneath the soil encased in winter's rime ; Of rainbows ; of the crystal hearted clouds Which pour their shining wealth on lands That bud and bloom with vernal quickened life — They have an immortality of work.

Immortal! Yes, Realities remain; The softest moonbeams write biographies. And histories of wide and graphic power That wiser men may read some distant day. Pray, what destroys? Something or nothing- ness? And what's destroyed. A nought? Something

can hold Its own. Whatever was, forever is. Lut forms and feelings change as cloudlets do, To make the purest skies more beautiful.

194 SEA DRIFT.

Are Ocean's crystal waters; dear old Earth With her opaqueness and her blinded sight, To her least unit, dumb or locked in sleep; And supple living flesh that clothes our life, And quick indwelling life, itself — akin. We, children all of one high Fatherhood? What matter then if various destinies Await us with the onward march of time? To each and all comes great and crowning good, One's waiting best ; and be it sweet content Or aspiration never satisfied. His cup of blessedness shall overflow! One love created all ; and all is good.

THEY AND WE.

Vapors weave transparencies. Clays, the world opaque; And their many variancies Added beauty make. Wealth of new creations, rich and rare ; And they've woven sea and earth and air.

We — the minds — direct them

Towards the work we choose; Never we expect them Work of ours refuse; Doing it is all their very own ; They work on unaided — they, alone !

SEA DRIFT. 195

Grateful for their services.

Proud of all they do, Under Nature's auspices, They the worlds renew; We, not really working, we yet share All the good they've treasured everywhere.

Ours the guiding fingers Pointing out the way; Their free service lingers, (Nature loves delay,) If we fail to further highest needs. Or to open paths where progress leads.

We are thought and feeling,

We are eyes that see; If in reverence kneeling. Heirs of truth are we ; Needs, and aims, and hopes, diverging far, They and we alike, Thought's children are.

As orderly as stars in heaven, move These mists invisible, impalpable, Moving as to the chant of seraphim. New places take and build up visual forms; Build solids deftly wrought as beams of sun. Swift, rhythmic movements, fitted each to each,

196 SEA DRIFT.

1

As measured waves in rays of whitest light, Are interwoven in their beauteous whole ; And, softly, from the sheer intangible, Rairt drops are born, the rainbows span the sky, And pinnacles of ice point heavenward As clear and shining as the sunlight air. The miracle of worlds is wrought anew ; From out the formless, form is born again.

They, with unerring skill, make nice selections, Rejecting the unfit, fit partners choose ; So aptly thrusting out impurities That ice, and dews, and frost, are diamond clear ; The snows, soft clustered groups of white winged

stars — The smallest atom laid more skilfully Than ever mason fitted stone to stone. Or artist piece to piece, and shade to shade, In richest, choice mosaic, many hued.

Have these lost waifs of thine the artist sense ? The wisdom that exceeds and shames our best ? Are they thy dainty messengers of love, Sent out to do high service far and wide ? From pure invisible, to build again Substance made visible? Potent? of right To change and uplift all of Matter's realm?

SEA DRIFT. 197

Spirits are they, thy thoughts? that from thyself Thou dost, as force and form, create anew, To bid them run their race of service due?

And we, are we God's thoughts incarnated? Constructed by His plans? dowered with His

life?— Intentions and emotions all one's own And each intact in one identity, One deathless unit of His universe?

Nature herself holds out her offered proof That one Intelligence surrounds us all, The man, the beast, the stone, the senseless

world — And each with nature of its very own, And waiting destiny it may achieve. We, too, of God, are limited to act Within the bounds to one alone assigned; And fitted for our part that we must find To duly execute with all our might.

CREATION.

God knows what yet will bei As we the things we see; His full eternity.

198 SEA DRIFT.

One simple, grand abiding.

He is, he ever is.

No waiting future his !

He was and always was In moveless nozv presiding, In boundless space residing.

All substance here to stay,

Each being shares alway,

Duration's endless day. Each self, like God, persistent.

Life's curtailed sentient glow,

Has limits fashioned so,

Onward its bound to flow; Wide varying every instant, To every check resistant.

Motion is gainless change,

Thoughts press from known to strange.

Feelings enlarge the range Of active correlation.

For us there's try and try.

There's past, and by and by;

Bright colors fade and die. Sweet forms have no duration — Life wins increased elation.

Now — past and future holds; All changes it enfolds. The still unborn enrolls —

SEA DRIFT. 199

Printed — Time's overplus.

Time measures loss and gain,

Time gauges joy and pain,

Time works on motion's plain. Time, itself limited with us, Finds helpful past and future thus.

Identity abides ;

But progress onward rides,

Plucks fruit on many sides. Its modes of doing limited;

To each, his life's onflow —

With Memory in tow —

Yields gain, if fast or slow. Creation means: — The Onward sped; Its Kingdom Gain, by Structure led.

Co-working with best heipers, justly gained, We reap rewards of personal consciousness. Experience won in eager, self- found life; And memory, that holds and binds life's wealth In starry galaxy of joys and hopes — Renewed like sunshine, all conditions ripe — To each self-centered, ever gaining mind. A gift so great Love never could recall !

200 SEA DRIFT.

Best human thought, man's spirit born in flesh, And with its limitations hedged about ; Weighted with higher might of sentient claims. Moves out in active life to change the world, Remoulding matter into nobler aims. Its better methods slowly won by toil, It fuses deeds and hopes and purposes; Raising the low to dignity and power, The crude and hard to fine and soft and sweet — All untamed beauty made more beautiful ; And man immortal ! Work is never done. The joy of making better grows supreme. Far more received than one can ever give, Mankind in blessing, must become thrice blest. Knowledge improves — as blindness never could, As selfish isolation never would — The wealth of all that is to more and best ; And re-endowing dull external forms With guiding truth, that binds our world to

God's, Sees Earth all beautiful — island of Heaven.

THOUGHTS.

As lightning's flash, we come;

As quick we fade; But we have found our home,

Our place have made !

SEA DRIFT. 201

Joyous, we oft revive

To help our kin; And in life's busy hive

We always win!

We are the eyes of mind,

Its telescope; The hidden things we find —

Outrunning hope.

We are his breath, God gave

To living things ; Their guard from harm to save ;

And we, their wings.

Each mind from Mind marked off,

Wins on its way ; Its course, or smooth, or rough.

We are its day.

To us emotions cling

As leaves to vine; All varied feelings ring

As thoughts incline.

Man's helper from his birth,

Afar or nigh, We recreate the earth.

And search the slcy.

r

SEA DRIFT.

1

The high, endowing, primal Life and Light, / EstabHshes a perfect widest reach

Of equity and justly balanced claims; It clings supreme to every subtle force As East forever clings to equal West, As gravitation claims its double pull — Open, transparent, code of light, of hope; To Ocean, in its shifting thousand forms. To every atom weaving form in space, To men impulsive in all various deeds.

Not shoved aside by our perversity Of greed, which plucks its own sharp penalties, God rights all shallow, weak disturbances Which we, in grasping blindness, put in swing; He is our life's Sustainer ! His the breath, In us remade and ours — the Always Here.

Wisdom and love supreme, the primal All — Vitality — innate, unlimited — Is Force at work in vapor's weaving mist. In raindrop's fall, in Ocean's plenitude, In schemes that bind bright waters' widest scope. In sentient purpose, urging flight of worlds ; In earliest, briefest feeling, deepest thought, The changeless immanence in every change Of finite waking and aspiring mind; In all rich wealth of shared activities ;

SEA DRIFT. 203

The Love of human love ; its only source ; Fountain of all that's good and beautiful ; Of truth and its high fruitage manifold, — Our God who in His bosom bears the universe.

From His persisting, fructifying Thought, Outborne as potent high executive, We gain the unborn fiber of all worlds, And forming warp and woof of sentient life.

So all we make, and all that Nature makes, Began without beginning; but remade By Life and Mind eternal, absolute — His living looms weaving their webs in Time On guiding lines wrought out within themselves.

So grow — in wider scope — as grow the

flowers, The glorious stars, and sun, and fruitful earth ; All worlds, and all their warmth and wealth of

forms And substance; and conscious finite life, With endless gain — the flesh of Spirit born, And spirit, born of Spirit infinite, Creation evermore continuing.

204 SEA DRIFT,

THE OUTLOOK.

Aglow with Life's enfolding sun, Interpreted by one sustaining law, All paradox unfolds without a flaw;

The seen and unseen worlds are one.

The harmonies of truth give dole. Insight is clearer than the keenest sight, Its vision deeper than the debts of light —

Attuned to Nature's whole.

Conviction crowns the sanguine hope, Reveals intelligence, the living One; Mankind its threads, in vivid life outspun;

None need in lingering shadows grope.

THE END.

MAR 26 1903

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