Fires of Driftwood

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Title: Fires of Driftwood
Author: Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
Release Date: May 30, 2004 [EBook #12475]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRES OF
DRIFTWOOD ***
Produced by Andrew Sly. Thanks to A Celebration of Women Writers
for providing the source text.
FIRES OF DRIFTWOOD
BY ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY
WITH DECORATIONS
BY J.E.H. MACDONALD A.R.C.A.
First published by McClelland & Stewart, Limited, Toronto, 1922.
The thanks of the author are due to the editors of Ainslee's Magazine,
The American Magazine, The Canadian Magazine, Canadian Home
Journal, The Canadian Bookman, The Forum, The Globe, Harper's
Magazine, The Independent, The Ladies' World, McClure's Magazine,
Metropolitan Magazine, The Reader Magazine, Scribner's Magazine,
Saturday Night, and The Youth's Companion for permission to publish
this verse in its present form.

CONTENTS
FIRES OF DRIFTWOOD
WHEN AS A LAD
LAUREATE

OUT OF BABYLON
LAST SPRING
PRESENCE
IN AN
AUTUMN GARDEN
ROSE DOLORES
A PILGRIM

SPRING WILL COME
COSMOS
THE SECRET
I WATCH
SWIFT PICTURES
FEAR
RESURRECTION
THE LOST
NAME
THE HAPPY TRAVELLER
THE DEAD BRIDE

THE CROCUS BED
THE VISION
THE MIRACLE
THE
HOMESTEADER
WET WEATHER
THE SLEEPING
BEAUTY
DOWN AT THE DOCKS
LAKE LOUISE
THE
GATEKEEPER
THE BRIDGE BUILDER
THE PRAIRIE
SCHOOL
CALGARY STATION
VALE
THE WAY TO
WAIT
THE PASSER BY
FIRST LOVE
SAD ONE, MUST
YOU WEEP
JOSEPH
A CHRISTMAS CHILD
SPRING IN
NAZARETH
INHERITANCE
SONG OF THE SLEEPER

THE TYRANT
THE GIFTS
THE TOWN BETWEEN
ON
THE MOUNTAIN

THE PROPHET
GIVE ME A DAY

LITTLE BROWN BIRD
THE WATCHER
POSSESSION

TO ARCADY
THE FIELDS OF EVEN
I LOVE MY LOVE

SPRING AWOKE TO-DAY
IN TOWN
SUMMER'S PASSING

THE DOOM OF YS
TIME'S GARDEN
THE COMING OF
LOVE
PREMONITION
THE CHILD
INTRUSION
THE
SEA'S WITHHOLDING
LOVE UNKIND
CHRISTMAS IN
HEAVEN
I WHISPERED TO THE BOB-O-LINK
YOU
THE
MOTHER
THE VASSAL
THE TROUBADOUR
INDIAN
SUMMER
THE UNCHANGED
INDIFFERENCE
LAST
THINGS
CALLOUS CUPID
THE MEETING
THE PIPER

WANDERLUST
GOLD
THE MATERIALIST
TIR NAN OG

THE LITTLE MAN IN GREEN
THE ENCHANTRESS

THE BANSHEE
THE WITCH
FAIRY SINGING
KILLED
IN ACTION
SPRING CAME IN
FROM THE TRENCHES

THE REASONS
TO-DAY
MEMORY

DREAM
PERHAPS


GLAMOUR
FRIENDSHIP
THE RETURNED MAN

EPITAPH
FOR ONE WHO WENT IN SPRING
Fires of Driftwood
ON what long tides
Do you drift to my fire,
You waifs of strange
waters?
From what far seas,
What murmurous sands,
What
desolate beaches--
Flotsam of those glories that were ships!
I gather you,
Bitter with salt,
Sun-bleached, rock-scarred,
moon-harried,
Fuel for my fire.
You are Pride's end.
Through all to-morrows you are yesterday.

You are waste,
You are ruin,
For where is that which once you
were?
I gather you.
See! I set free the fire within you--
You awake in thin
flame!
Tremulous, mistlike, your soul aspires,
Blue, beautiful,
Up
and up to the clouds which are its kindred!
What is left is nothing--

Ashes blown along the shore!
When as a Lad
WHEN, as a lad, at break of day
I watched the fishers sail away,

My thoughts, like flocking birds, would follow
Across the curving
sky's blue hollow,
And on and on--
Into the very heart of dawn!
For long I searched the world--ah, me!
I searched the sky, I searched
the sea,
With much of useless grief and rueing
Those winged
thoughts of mine pursuing--
So dear were they,
So lovely and so far
away!
I seek them still and always must
Until my laggard heart is dust

And I am free to follow, follow,
Across the curving sky's blue hollow,

Those thoughts too fleet
For any save the soul's swift feet!

Laureate
DEATH met a little child who cried
For a bright star which earth
denied,
And Death, so sympathetic, kissed it,
Saying: "With me

All bright things be!"--
And only the child's mother missed it.
Death met a maiden on the brae,
Her eyes held dreams life would
betray,
And gallant Death was greatly taken--
"Leave," whispered
he,
"Your dream with me
And I will see you never waken."
Death met an old man in a lane;
So gnarled was he and full of pain

That kindly Death was struck with pity--
"Come you with me,
Old
man," said he,
"I'll set you down in a fair city."
So, kingly Death along the way
Scatters rare gifts and asks no pay--

Yet who to Death will write a sonnet?
If any dare,
Let him take
care
No foolish tear be spilled upon it!
Out of Babylon
THEIR looks for me are bitter,
And bitter is their word--
I may not
glance behind unseen,
I may not sigh unheard.
So fare we forth from Babylon,
Along the road of stone;
And no
one looks to Babylon
Save I--save I alone!
My mother's eyes are glory-filled
(Save when they fall on me)
The
shining of my father's face
I tremble when I see,
For they were slaves in Babylon,
And now they're walking free--

They leave their chains in Babylon,
I bear my chains with me!
At night a sound of singing
The vast encampment fills;
"Jerusalem!
Jerusalem!"
It sweeps the nearing hills--
But no one sings of Babylon
(Their home of yesterday)
And no one

prays for Babylon,
And I--I dare not pray!
Last night the Prophet saw me;
And, while he held me there,
The
holy fire within his eyes
Burned all my secret bare.
"What! Sigh you so for Babylon?"
(I turned away my face)
"Here's
one who turns to Babylon,
Heart traitor to her race!"
I follow