Dreams Dust | Page 3

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 of the rose;?Through changing shapes, through devious
ways,?By noon or night, through cloud or flame,?My heart has followed all my days?Something I cannot name.
In sunlight on some woman's hair,?Or starlight in some woman's eyne,?Or in low laughter smothered where?Her red lips wedded mine,?My heart hath known, and thrilled to know,?This unnamed presence that it sought;?And when my heart hath found it so,?"Love is the name," I thought.
Sometimes when sudden afterglows?In futile glory storm the skies?Within their transient gold and rose?The secret stirs and dies;?Or