The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics Part 23

"To fear not sensible failure, Nor covet the game at all, But fighting, fighting, fighting, Die, driven against the wall!"

L.I. GUINEY.

Triumph.[8]

The dawn came in through the bars of the blind,-- And the winter's dawn is gray,-- And said, "However you cheat your mind, The hours are flying away."

A ghost of a dawn, and pale, and weak,-- "Has the sun a heart," I said, "To throw a morning flush on the cheek Whence a fairer flush has fled?"

As a gray rose-leaf that is fading white Was the cheek where I set my kiss; And on that side of the bed all night Death had watched, and I on this.

I kissed her lips, they were half apart, Yet they made no answering sign; Death's hand was on her failing heart, And his eyes said, "She is mine."

I set my lips on the blue-veined lid, Half-veiled by her death-damp hair; And oh, for the violet depths it hid And the light I longed for there!

Faint day and the fainter life awoke, And the night was overpast; And I said, "Though never in life you spoke Oh, speak with a look at last!"

For the s.p.a.ce of a heart-beat fluttered her breath, As a bird's wing spread to flee; She turned her weary arms to Death, And the light of her eyes to me.

H.C. BUNNER.

[8] From "The Poems of H.C. Bunner," copyright, 1884, 1892, 1896, by Charles Scribner's Sons.

Evening Song.[9]

Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands, And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea, How long they kiss in sight of all the lands.

Ah! longer, longer, we.

Now in the sea's red vintage melts the sun, As Egypt's pearl dissolved in rosy wine, And Cleopatra night drinks all. 'Tis done, Love, lay thine hand in mine.

Come forth, sweet stars, and comfort heaven's heart; Glimmer, ye waves, round else unlighted sands.

O night! divorce our sun and sky apart, Never our lips, our hands.

S. LANIER.

[9] From "Poems of Sidney Lanier," copyright, 1884, 1891, by Mary D.

Lanier, published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

"The Woods That Bring the Sunset Near."

The wind from out the west is blowing, The homeward-wandering cows are lowing, Dark grow the pine-woods, dark and drear,-- The woods that bring the sunset near.

When o'er wide seas the sun declines, Far off its fading glory s.h.i.+nes, Far off, sublime, and full of fear,-- The pine-woods bring the sunset near.

This house that looks to east, to west, This, dear one, is our home, our rest; Yonder the stormy sea, and here The woods that bring the sunset near.

R.W. GILDER.

At Night.

The sky is dark, and dark the bay below Save where the midnight city's pallid glow Lies like a lily white On the black pool of night.

O rus.h.i.+ng steamer, hurry on thy way Across the swirling Kills and gusty bay, To where the eddying tide Strikes hard the city's side!

For there, between the river and the sea, Beneath that glow,--the lily's heart to me,-- A sleeping mother mild, And by her breast a child.

R.W. GILDER.

"Still in Thy Love I Trust."

Still in thy love I trust, Supreme o'er death, since deathless is thy essence; For, putting off the dust, Thou hast but blest me with a nearer presence.

And so, for this, for all, I breathe no selfish plaint, no faithless chiding; On me the snowflakes fall, But thou hast gained a summer all-abiding.

Striking a plaintive string, Like some poor harper at a palace portal, I wait without and sing, While those I love glide in and dwell immortal.

A.A. FIELDS.

The Future.

What may we take into the vast Forever?