The Second Book of Modern Verse Part 10

He was straight and strong, and his eyes were blue As the summer meeting of sky and sea, And the ruddy cliffs had a colder hue Than flushed his cheek when he married me.

We pa.s.sed the porch where the swallows breed, We left the little brown church behind, And I leaned on his arm, though I had no need, Only to feel him so strong and kind.

One thing I never can quite forget; It grips my throat when I try to pray -- The keen salt smell of a drying net That hung on the churchyard wall that day.

He would have taken a long, long grave -- A long, long grave, for he stood so tall . . .

Oh, G.o.d, the crash of a breaking wave, And the smell of the nets on the churchyard wall!

City Roofs. [Charles Hanson Towne]

Roof-tops, roof-tops, what do you cover?

Sad folk, bad folk, and many a glowing lover; Wise people, simple people, children of despair -- Roof-tops, roof-tops, hiding pain and care.

Roof-tops, roof-tops, O what sin you're knowing, While above you in the sky the white clouds are blowing; While beneath you, agony and dolor and grim strife Fight the olden battle, the olden war of Life.

Roof-tops, roof-tops, cover up their shame -- Wretched souls, prisoned souls too piteous to name; Man himself hath built you all to hide away the stars -- Roof-tops, roof-tops, you hide ten million scars.

Roof-tops, roof-tops, well I know you cover Many solemn tragedies and many a lonely lover; But ah, you hide the good that lives in the throbbing city -- Patient wives, and tenderness, forgiveness, faith, and pity.

Roof-tops, roof-tops, this is what I wonder: You are thick as poisonous plants, thick the people under; Yet roofless, and homeless, and shelterless they roam, The driftwood of the town who have no roof-top and no home!

Eye-Witness. [Ridgely Torrence]

Down by the railroad in a green valley By dancing water, there he stayed awhile Singing, and three men with him, listeners, All tramps, all homeless reapers of the wind, Motionless now and while the song went on Transfigured into mages thronged with visions; There with the late light of the sunset on them And on clear water spinning from a spring Through little cones of sand dancing and fading, Close beside pine woods where a hermit thrush Cast, when love dazzled him, shadows of music That lengthened, fluting, through the singer's pauses While the sure earth rolled eastward bringing stars Over the singer and the men that listened There by the roadside, understanding all.

A train went by but nothing seemed to be changed.

Some eye at a car window must have flashed From the plush world inside the gla.s.sy Pullman, Carelessly bearing off the scene forever, With idle wonder what the men were doing, Seeing they were so strangely fixed and seeing Torn papers from their smeary dreary meal Spread on the ground with old tomato cans Muddy with dregs of lukewarm chicory, Neglected while they listened to the song.

And while he sang the singer's face was lifted, And the sky shook down a soft light upon him Out of its branches where like fruits there were Many beautiful stars and planets moving, With lands upon them, rising from their seas, Glorious lands with glittering sands upon them, With soils of gold and magic mould for seeding, The s.h.i.+ning loam of lands afoam with gardens On mightier stars with giant rains and suns There in the heavens; but on none of all Was there ground better than he stood upon: There was no world there in the sky above him Deeper in promise than the earth beneath him Whose dust had flowered up in him the singer And three men understanding every word.

The Tramp Sings:

I will sing, I will go, and never ask me "Why?"

I was born a rover and a pa.s.ser-by.

I seem to myself like water and sky, A river and a rover and a pa.s.ser-by.

But in the winter three years back We lit us a night fire by the track,

And the snow came up and the fire it flew And we couldn't find the warming room for two.

One had to suffer, so I left him the fire And I went to the weather from my heart's desire.

It was night on the line, it was no more fire, But the zero whistle through the icy wire.

As I went suffering through the snow Something like a shadow came moving slow.

I went up to it and I said a word; Something flew above it like a kind of bird.

I leaned in closer and I saw a face; A light went round me but I kept my place.

My heart went open like an apple sliced; I saw my Saviour and I saw my Christ.

Well, you may not read it in a book, But it takes a gentle Saviour to give a gentle look.

I looked in his eyes and I read the news; His heart was having the railroad blues.

Oh, the railroad blues will cost you dear, Keeps you moving on for something that you don't see here.

We stood and whispered in a kind of moon; The line was looking like May and June.

I found he was a roamer and a journey man Looking for a lodging since the night began.

He went to the doors but he didn't have the pay.

He went to the windows, then he went away.

Says, "We'll walk together and we'll both be fed."

Says, "I will give you the 'other' bread."

Oh, the bread he gave and without money!

O drink, O fire, O burning honey!

It went all through me like a s.h.i.+ning storm: I saw inside me, it was light and warm.

I saw deep under and I saw above, I saw the stars weighed down with love.

They sang that love to burning birth, They poured that music to the earth.

I heard the stars sing low like mothers.

He said: "Now look, and help feed others."

I looked around, and as close as touch Was everybody that suffered much.

They reached out, there was darkness only; They could not see us, they were lonely.

I saw the hearts that deaths took hold of, With the wounds bare that were not told of;