Dreams and Days

Project Gutenberg's Dreams and Days: Poems, by George Parsons Lathrop #4 in our series by George Parsons Lathrop
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Dreams and Days: Poems
Author: George Parsons Lathrop
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7325]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on April 14, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DREAMS AND DAYS: POEMS ***
Produced by David Garcia, Eric Eldred, Juliet Sutherland,?Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Team.
DREAMS AND DAYS
POEMS
BY
GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP
To ROSL
CONTENTS
I
STRIKE HANDS, YOUNG MEN!
"O JAY!"
THE STAR TO ITS LIGHT
"THE SUNSHINE OF THINE EYES"
JESSAMINE
THE BOBOLINK
SAILOR'S SONG, RETURNING
FIRST GLANCE
BRIDE BROOK
MAY-ROSE
THE SINGING WIRE
THE HEART OF A SONG
SOUTH-WIND
THE LOVER'S YEAR
NEW WORLDS
NIGHT IN NEW YORK
THE SONG-SPARROW
I LOVED YOU, ONCE----
II
THE BRIDE OF WAR
A RUNE OF THE RAIN
BREAKERS
BLACKMOUTH, OF COLORADO
THE CHILD-YEAR
CHRISTENING
THANKSGIVING TURKEY
BEFORE THE SNOW
III
YOUTH TO THE POET
THE SWORD DHAM
"AT THE GOLDEN GATE"
CHARITY
HELEN AT THE LOOM
THE CASKET OF OPALS
LOVE THAT LIVES
IV
BLUEBIRD'S GREETING
THE VOICE OF THE VOID
"O WHOLESOME DEATH"
INCANTATION
FAMINE AND HARVEST
THE CHILD'S WISH GRANTED
THE FLOWN SOUL
SUNSET AND SHORE
THE PHOEBE-BIRD
A STRONG CITY
THREE DOVES
V
ARISE, AMERICAN!
THE NAME OF WASHINGTON
GRANT'S DIRGE.
BATTLE DAYS
KEENAN'S CHARGE
MARTHY VIRGINIA'S HAND
GETTYSBURG: A BATTLE ODE
NOTES
STRIKE HANDS, YOUNG MEN!
Strike hands, young men!?We know not when?Death or disaster comes,?Mightier than battle-drums?To summon us away.?Death bids us say farewell?To all we love, nor stay?For tears;--and who can tell?How soon misfortune's hand?May smite us where we stand,?Dragging us down, aloof,?Under the swift world's hoof?
Strike hands for faith, and power?To gladden the passing hour;?To wield the sword, or raise a song;--?To press the grape; or crush out wrong.?And strengthen right.?Give me the man of sturdy palm?And vigorous brain;?Hearty, companionable, sane,?'Mid all commotions calm,?Yet filled with quick, enthusiastic fire;--?Give me the man?Whose impulses aspire,?And all his features seem to say, "I can!"
Strike hands, young men!?'Tis yours to help rebuild the State,?And keep the Nation great.?With act and speech and pen?'Tis yours to spread?The morning-red?That ushers in a grander day:?To scatter prejudice that blinds,?And hail fresh thoughts in noble minds;?To overthrow bland tyrannies?That cheat the people, and with slow disease?Change the Republic to a mockery.?Your words can teach that liberty?Means more than just to cry "We're free"?While bending to some new-found yoke.?So shall each unjust bond be broke,?Each toiler gain his meet reward,?And life sound forth a truer chord.
Ah, if we so have striven,?And mutually the grasp have given?Of brotherhood,?To work each other and the whole race good;?What matter if the dream?Come only partly true,?And all the things accomplished seem?Feeble and few??At least, when summer's flame burns low?And on our heads the drifting snow?Settles and stays,?We shall rejoice that in our earlier days?We boldly then?Struck hands, young men!
"O JAY!"
O jay--?Blue-jay!?What are you trying to say??I remember, in the spring?You pretended you could sing;?But your voice is now still queerer,?And as yet you've come no nearer?To a song.?In fact, to sum the matter,?I never heard a flatter?Failure than your doleful clatter.?Don't you think it's wrong??It was sweet to hear your note,?I'll not deny,?When April set pale clouds afloat?O'er the blue tides of sky,?And 'mid the wind's triumphant drums?You, in your white and azure coat,?A herald proud, came forth to cry,?"The royal summer comes!"
But now that autumn's here,?And the leaves curl up in sheer?Disgust,?And the cold rains fringe the pine,?You really must?Stop that supercilious whine---?Or you'll be shot, by some mephitic?Angry critic.
You don't fulfill your early promise:?You're not the smartest?Kind of artist,?Any more than poor Blind Tom is.?Yet somehow, still,?There's meaning in your screaming bill.?What are you trying to say?
Sometimes your piping is delicious,?And then again it's simply vicious;?Though on the whole the varying jangle?Weaves round me an entrancing tangle?Of memories grave or joyous:?Things to weep or laugh at;?Love that lived at a hint, or?Days so sweet, they'd cloy us;?Nights I have spent with friends;--?Glistening groves of winter,?And the sound of vanished feet?That walked by the ripening wheat;?With other things.... Not the half that?Your cry familiar blends?Can I name, for it is mostly?Very ghostly;--?Such mixed-up things your voice recalls,?With its peculiar quirks and falls.
Possibly, then, your meaning, plain,?Is that your harsh and broken strain?Tallies best with a world of pain.
Well, I'll admit?There's