Dreams Dust | Page 3

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*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

Note: In "The Parting," page 161, line 4, I have changed "they face" to
"thy face"; in "The Struggle," page 173, line 4, I have changed "l!o" to
"lo!"
DREAMS & DUST
POEMS BY DON MARQUIS
TO
MY MOTHER
VIRGINIA WHITMORE MARQUIS
CONTENTS
PROEM
DAYLIGHT HUMORS
THIS IS ANOTHER DAY
APRIL SONG
THE EARTH, IT IS
ALSO A STAR
THE NAME
THE BIRTH
A MOOD OF
PAVLOWA
THE POOL
"THEY HAD NO POET"
NEW
YORK
A HYMN
THE SINGER
WORDS ARE NOT GUNS

WITH THE SUBMARINES
NICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRO

DICKENS
A POLITICIAN
THE BAYONET
THE
BUTCHERS AT PRAYER
SHADOWS
HAUNTED
A NIGHTMARE
THE MOTHER
IN THE
BAYOU
THE SAILOR'S WIFE SPEAKS
HUNTED
A
DREAM CHILD
ACROSS THE NIGHT
SEA CHANGES

THE TAVERN OF DESPAIR
COLORS AND SURFACES
A GOLDEN LAD
THE SAGE AND THE WOMAN
NEWS
FROM BABYLON
A RHYME OF THE ROADS
THE LAND
OF YESTERDAY
OCTOBER
CHANT OF THE CHANGING
HOURS

DREAMS AND DUST
SELVES
THE WAGES
IN MARS, WHAT AVATAR?
THE
GOD-MAKER, MAN
UNREST
THE PILTDOWN SKULL

THE SEEKER
THE AWAKENING
A SONG OF MEN
THE
NOBLER LESSON
AT LAST
LYRICS
"KING PANDION, HE IS DEAD"
DAVID TO BATHSHEBA

THE JESTERS
"MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY"
THE
TRIOLET
FROM THE BRIDGE
"PALADINS, PALADINS,
YOUTH NOBLE-HEARTED"
"MY LANDS, NOT THINE"

TO A DANCING DOLL
LOWER NEW YORK--A STORM

AT SUNSET
A CHRISTMAS GIFT
SILVIA
THE
EXPLORERS
EARLY AUTUMN
"TIME STEALS FROM
LOVE"
THE RONDEAU
VISITORS
THE PARTING
AN
OPEN FIRE
REALITIES
REALITIES
THE STRUGGLE
THE REBEL
THE CHILD
AND THE MILL
"SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI"
THE
COMRADE
ENVOI
PROEM
"SO LET THEM PASS, THESE SONGS OF MINE"
So let them pass, these songs of mine,
Into oblivion, nor repine;

Abandoned ruins of large schemes,

Dimmed lights adrift from nobler
dreams,
Weak wings I sped on quests divine,
So let them pass, these songs of
mine.
They soar, or sink ephemeral--
I care not greatly which
befall!

For if no song I e'er had wrought,
Still have I loved and laughed and
fought;
So let them pass, these songs of mine;
I sting too hot with
life to whine!
Still shall I struggle, fail, aspire,
Lose God, and find Gods in the mire,

And drink dream-deep life's heady wine--
So let them pass, these
songs of mine.
DAYLIGHT HUMORS
THIS IS ANOTHER DAY
I AM mine own priest, and I shrive myself
Of all my wasted
yesterdays. Though sin
And sloth and foolishness, and all ill weeds

Of error, evil, and neglect grow rank
And ugly there, I dare forgive
myself
That error, sin, and sloth and foolishness.
God knows that
yesterday I played the fool;
God knows that yesterday I played the
knave;
But shall I therefore cloud this new dawn o'er
With fog of
futile sighs and vain regrets?
This is another day! And flushed Hope walks
Adown the sunward
slopes with golden shoon.
This is another day; and its young strength

Is laid upon the quivering hills until,
Like Egypt's Memnon, they
grow quick with song.
This is another day, and the bold world

Leaps up and grasps its light, and laughs, as leapt
Prometheus up and
wrenched the fire from Zeus.
This is another day--are its eyes blurred
With maudlin grief for any
wasted past?
A thousand thousand failures shall not daunt!
Let dust
clasp dust; death, death--I am alive!
And out of all the dust and death
of mine
Old selves I dare to lift a singing heart
And living faith; my
spirit dares drink deep
Of the red mirth mantling in the cup of morn.
APRIL SONG

FLEET across the grasses
Flash the feet of Spring,
Piping, as he
passes
Fleet across the grasses,
"Follow, lads and lasses!
Sing,
world, sing!"
Fleet across the grasses
Flash the feet of Spring!
Idle winds deliver
Rumors through the town,
Tales of reeds that
quiver,
Idle winds deliver,
Where the rapid river
Drags the
willows down--
Idle winds deliver
Rumors through the town.
In the country places
By the silver brooks
April airs her graces;
In
the country places
Wayward April paces,
Laughter in her looks;

In the country places
By the silver brooks.
Hints of alien glamor
Even reach the town;
Urban muses
stammer
Hints of alien glamor,
But the city's clamor
Beats the
voices down;
Hints of alien glamor
Even reach the town.
THIS EARTH, IT IS ALSO A STAR
WHERE the singers of Saturn find tongue,
Where the Galaxy's lovers
embrace,
Our world and its beauty are sung!
They lean from their
casements to trace
If our planet still spins in its place;
Faith fables
the thing that we are,
And Fantasy laughs and gives chase:
This
earth, it is also a star!
Round the sun, that is fixed, and hung
For a lamp in the darkness of
space
We are whirled, we are swirled, we are flung;
Singing and
shining we race
And our light on the uplifted face
Of dreamer or
prophet afar
May fall as a symbol of grace:
This earth, it is also a
star!
Looking out where our planet is swung
Doubt loses his writhen
grimace,
Dry hearts drink the gleams and are young;--
Where
agony's boughs interlace
His Garden some Jesus may pace,
Lifting,
the wan avatar,
His soul to this light as a vase!
This earth, it is also
a star!

Great spirits in sorrowful case
Yearn to us through the vapors that bar:

Canst think of that, soul, and be base?--
This earth, it is also a star!
THE NAME
IT shifts and shifts from form to form,
It drifts and darkles, gleams
and glows;
It is the passion of the storm,
The poignance