Giant Hours With Poet Preachers | Page 3

to this humble writer's
way of reading poetry there were never four lines for pure poetry more
beautifully writ, neither across the seas, nor here at home, neither east
nor west, than these four from "Virgilia":
"Forget it not till the crowns are crumbled And the swords of the kings
are rent with rust; Forget it not till the hills lie humbled, And the
springs of the seas run dust." The Shoes of Happiness.
Prophetic? Yes! But ah, the music of it! Here rings and here sings
David the shepherd; the sweet lute, the harp, the wind in the trees, the
surge of the ocean-reef. It is music of a high and holy kind.
Which reminds me that I am to treat in this chapter on Markham only
of what he has written since 1906, the preceding period, best known
through his "Man with the Hoe," having been discussed by Dr. Downey
in the book heretofore mentioned. I have the joy-task in these brief
lines to bring to you Markham's "The Shoes of Happiness," which

seems to me the strongest book he has written, not forgetting, either,
"The Hoe" book, as he himself calls it.
If you have the privilege of personal friendship with this "Father Poet,"
he will write for you somewhere, some time, some place, these four
favorite lines, with a twinkle in his eyes that is half boy and half sage,
but all love, which quatrain he calls "Outwitted":
"He drew a circle that shut me out-- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But
Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!" The
Shoes of Happiness.
And with these four lines he introduces the new book of poems, "The
Shoes of Happiness."
THE HAPPINESS OF POVERTY
One wonders where "The Shoes of Happiness" may be found, and the
answer is forthcoming in the first of "Six Stories," when he finds that
the Sultan Mahmoud is near unto death, and that there is just one thing
that will make him well, and that is that he may wear the shoes of a
perfectly happy man:
"For only by this can you break the ban: You must wear the shoes of a
happy man." The Shoes of Happiness.
The Vizier was sent to find these shoes or lose his own head:
"Go forth, Vizier, when the dawn is red, And bring me the shoes, or
send instead, By the hand of this trusted slave, your head!" The Shoes
of Happiness.
He first found a crowd of idle rich going forth for a day's outing among
the fields and flowers, a "swarm of the folk of high degree," and
thought to find the shoes here, but, alas! he found that
"In each glad heart was a wistful cry; Behind each joy was a secret
sigh." The Shoes of Happiness.
He turned from the rich and sought the homes of the poor, and the
Father in the home of the poor said unto him:
"Ah, Vizier, I have seven sweet joys, but I have one fear: The dread of
to-morrow ever is here!" The Shoes of Happiness.
A Poet was found weaving a song of happiness, and the Vizier thought
that surely here would he find the man with the "happy shoes," but the
Poet cried:
"No," sighed the poet; "you do me wrong, For sorrow is ever the nest of
song." The Shoes of Happiness.

Everywhere that he wandered in search he found some touch of
unhappiness. He tried Youth and Age, but,
"The young were restless that youth should stay, The old were sad that
it went away."
The Shoes of Happiness.
He thought to find the shoes on the feet of the Lover, but heard the
Lover say:
"Yes, yes; but love is a tower of fears, A joy half torment, a heaven half
tears!"
The Shoes of Happiness.
He had heard of a wise old Sage, who had been to Mecca, and sought
him only to hear, "I am not glad; I am only wise." At last he heard of a
man from far Algiers. With hurried steps he sought in vain. At last one
day he found a man lying in a field:
"'Ho,' cried Halil, 'I am seeking one Whose days are all in a brightness
run.'-- 'Then I am he, for I have no lands, Nor have any gold to crook
my hands. Favor, nor fortune, nor fame have I, And I only ask for a
road and a sky-- These, and a pipe of the willow-tree To whisper the
music out of me.'
"Out into the field the vizier ran. 'Allah-il-Allah! but you are the man;
Your shoes then, quick, for the great sultan-- Quick, and all fortunes are
yours to choose!' 'Yes, mighty Vizier,... but I