Shapes of Clay Part 31

THE MILITIAMAN.

"O warrior with the burnished arms-- With bullion cord and ta.s.sel-- Pray tell me of the lurid charms Of service and the fierce alarms: The storming of the castle, The charge across the smoking field, The rifles' busy rattle-- What thoughts inspire the men who wield The blade--their gallant souls how steeled And fortified in battle."

"Nay, man of peace, seek not to know War's baleful fascination-- The soldier's hunger for the foe, His dread of safety, joy to go To court annihilation.

Though calling bugles blow not now, Nor drums begin to beat yet, One fear unmans me, I'll allow, And poisons all my pleasure: How If I should get my feet wet!"

"A LITERARY METHOD."

His poems Riley says that he indites Upon an empty stomach. Heavenly Powers, Feed him throat-full: for what the beggar writes Upon his empty stomach empties ours!

A WELCOME.

Because you call yourself Knights Templar, and There's neither Knight nor Temple in the land,-- Because you thus by vain pretense degrade To paltry purposes traditions grand,--

Because to cheat the ignorant you say The thing that's not, elated still to sway The cra.s.s credulity of gaping fools And women by fantastical display,--

Because no sacred fires did ever warm Your hearts, high knightly service to perform-- A woman's breast or coffer of a man The only citadel you dare to storm,--

Because while railing still at lord and peer, At pomp and fuss-and-feathers while you jeer, Each member of your order tries to graft A peac.o.c.k's tail upon his barren rear,--

Because that all these things are thus and so, I bid you welcome to our city. Lo!

You're free to come, and free to stay, and free As soon as it shall please you, sirs--to go.

A SERENADE.

"Sas agapo sas agapo,"

He sang beneath her lattice.

"'Sas agapo'?" she murmured--"O, I wonder, now, what _that_ is!"

Was she less fair that she did bear So light a load of knowledge?

Are loving looks got out of books, Or kisses taught in college?

Of woman's lore give me no more Than how to love,--in many A tongue men brawl: she speaks them all Who says "I love," in any.

THE WISE AND GOOD.

"O father, I saw at the church as I pa.s.sed The populace gathered in numbers so vast That they couldn't get in; and their voices were low, And they looked as if suffering terrible woe."

"'Twas the funeral, child, of a gentleman dead For whom the great heart of humanity bled."

"What made it bleed, father, for every day Somebody pa.s.ses forever away?

Do the newspaper men print a column or more Of every person whose troubles are o'er?"

"O, no; they could never do that--and indeed, Though printers might print it, no reader would read.

To the sepulcher all, soon or late, must be borne, But 'tis only the Wise and the Good that all mourn."

"That's right, father dear, but how can our eyes Distinguish in dead men the Good and the Wise?"

"That's easy enough to the stupidest mind: They're poor, and in dying leave nothing behind."

"Seest thou in mine eye, father, anything green?

And takest thy son for a gaping marine?

Go tell thy fine tale of the Wise and the Good Who are poor and lamented to babes in the wood."

And that horrible youth as I hastened away Was building a wink that affronted the day.

THE LOST COLONEL.

"'Tis a woeful yarn," said the sailor man bold Who had sailed the northern-lakes-- "No woefuler one has ever been told Exceptin' them called 'fakes.'"

"Go on, thou son of the wind and fog, For I burn to know the worst!"

But his silent lip in a gla.s.s of grog Was dreamily immersed.

Then he wiped it on his sleeve and said: "It's never like that I drinks But what of the gallant gent that's dead I truly mournful thinks.

"He was a soldier chap--leastways As 'Colonel' he was knew; An' he hailed from some'rs where they raise A gra.s.s that's heavenly blue.

"He sailed as a pa.s.senger aboard The schooner 'Henery Jo.'

O wild the waves and galeses roared, Like taggers in a show!

"But he sat at table that calm an' mild As if he never had let His sperit know that the waves was wild An' everlastin' wet!--

"Jest set with a bottle afore his nose, As was labeled 'Total Eclipse'

(The bottle was) an' he frequent rose A gla.s.s o' the same to his lips.