Lacking the Daily Advertiser.

Ah, gentlemen, – for you are gentle, –

And mental maids, not sentimental.

* * *

A patch of meadow & upland

Reached by a mile of road,

Soothed by the voice of waters,

With birds & flowers bestowed.

This is my book of Chronicles,

Code, Psalter, lexicon,

My Genesis & calendar

I read it as I run.

It is my consolation

In mild or poignant grief,

My park & my gymnasium,

My out-of-door relief.

I come to it for strength,

Which it can well supply,

For Love draws might from terrene force

And potences of sky.

The tremulous battery, earth,

Responds to touch of man,

It thrills to the antipodes,

From Boston to Japan.

The planets’ child the planet knows

And to his joy replies;

To the lark’s trill unfolds the rose,

Clouds flush their gayest dyes.

When Ali prayed & loved

Where Syrian waters roll,

Upward the ninth heaven thrilled & moved

At the tread of the jubilant soul.

* * *

And he like me is not too proud

To be the poet of the crowd

* * *

Parks & ponds are good by day,

But where’s the husband doth delight

In black acres of the night?

Not my unseasoned step disturbs

The sleeps of trees or dreams of herbs

* * *

For Lyra yet shall be the pole

And grass grow in the Capitol

* * *

A score of airy miles will smooth

Rough Monadnock to a gem.

* * *

All things rehearse

The meaning of the universe

* * *

Pedants all,

They would be original;

The mute pebble shames their wit,

The echo is ironical

And wiser silence swallows speech.

* * *

I leave the book, I leave the wine,

I breathe freer by the pine:

In houses, I am low & mean,

Mountain waters wash me clean,

And by the seawaves I am strong,

I hear their medicinal song,

No balsam but the breeze I crave,

And no physician but the wave.

* * *

Easy to match what others do,

Perform the feat as well as they;

Hard to outdo the wise, the true,

And find a loftier way.

The school decays, the learning spoils,

Because of the sons of wine: –

How snatch the stripling from their toils?

Yet can one ray of truth divine

The banquet’s blaze outshine.

* * *

If wishes would carry me over the land,

I would ride with free bridle today,

I would greet every tree with a grasp of my hand,

I would drink of each river, & swim in each bay.

* * *

Maia

Illusion works impenetrable,

Weaving webs innumerable,

Her gay pictures never fail,

Crowds each on other, veil on veil,

Charmer who will be believed

By Man who thirsts to be deceived.

* * *

Seyd planted where the deluge ploughed,

His hired hands were wind & cloud

His eyes could spy the gods concealed

In each hummock of the field