Poems of Experience | Page 8

a dying Saviour has sufficed.
Give us the glowing
emblem which shall mean
Mankind awakened to the Self Divine;

The living emblem of the Radiant Christ.
II
Too long the crucifix on Calvary's height
Has cast its shadow on the
human heart.
Let now Religion's great co-worker Art,
Limn on the
background of departing night,
The shining Face all palpitant with
light,
And God's true message to the world impart.
Go tell each
toiler in the home and mart,
'Lo, Christ is with ye, if ye seek aright.'

The world forgets the vital word Christ taught;
The only word the
world has need to know:
The answer to creation's problem--Love.

The world remembers what the Christ forgot;
His cross of anguish
and His death of woe;
Release the martyr, and the Cross remove!
III
For now the former things have passed away,
And man, forgetting
that which lies behind,
And ever pressing forward, seeks to find

The prize of his high calling. Send a ray
From art's bright sun to
fortify the day,
And blaze the trail to every mortal mind.
The new
religion lies in being kind;
Faith stands and works, where once it
knelt to pray;
Faith counts its gain, where once it reckoned loss;

Ascending paths its patient feet have trod;
Man looks within, and
finds salvation there.
Release the suffering Saviour from the Cross,

And give the waiting world its Radiant God.
AT BAY

WIFE
Reach out your arms, and hold me close and fast.
Tell me there are no
memories of your past
That mar this love of ours, so great, so vast.
HUSBAND
Some truths are cheapened when too oft averred.
Does not the deed
speak louder than the word?
(Dear God, that old dream woke again
and stirred.)
WIFE
As you love me, you never loved before?
Though oft you say it, say it
yet once more.
My heart is jealous of those days of yore.
HUSBAND
Sweet wife, dear comrade, mother of my child,
My life is yours by
memory undefiled.
(It stirs again, that passion brief and wild.)
WIFE
You never knew a happier hour than this?
We two alone, our hearts
surcharged with bliss,
Nor other kisses, sweet as my own kiss?
HUSBAND
I was a thirsty field, long parched with drouth;
You were the warm
rain, blowing from the south.
(But, ah, the crimson madness of HER
mouth!)
WIFE
You would not, if you could, go down life's track
For just one little
moment and bring back
Some vanished rapture that you miss or lack?

HUSBAND
I am content. You are my life, my all.
(One burning hour, but one,
could I recall;
God, how men lie when driven to the wall!)
THE BIRTH OF JEALOUSY
With brooding mien and sultry eyes,
Outside the gates of Paradise

Eve sat, and fed the faggot flame
That lit the path whence Adam
came.
(Strange are the workings of a woman's mind.)
His giant shade preceded him,
Along the pathway green, and dim;

She heard his swift approaching tread,
But still she sat with drooping
head.
(Dark are the jungles of unhappy thought.)
He kissed her mouth, and gazed within
Her troubled eyes; for since
their sin,
His love had grown a thousand fold.
But Eve drew back;
her face was cold.
(Oh, who can read the cipher of a soul.)
'Now art thou mourning still, sweet wife?'
Spake Adam tenderly, 'the
life
Of our lost Eden? Why, in THEE
All Paradise remains for me.'

(Deep, deep the currents in a strong man's heart.)
Thus Eve: 'Nay, not lost Eden's bliss
I mourn; for heavier woe than
this
Wears on me with one thought accursed.
IN ADAM'S LIFE I
AM NOT FIRST.
(O woman's mind! what hells are fashioned there.)
'The serpent whispered Lilith's name:
('Twas thus he drove me to my
shame)
Pluck yonder fruit, he said, and know,
How Adam loved
HER, long ago.
(Fools, fools, who wander searching after pain.)
'I ate; and like an ancient scroll,
I saw that other life unroll;
I saw
thee, Adam, far from here
With Lilith on a wondrous sphere.
(Bold,
bold, the daring of a jealous heart.)

'Nay, tell me not I dreamed it all;
Last night in sleep thou didst let fall

Her name in tenderness; I bowed
My stricken head and cried aloud.

(Vast, vast the torment of a self-made woe.)
'And it was then, and not before,
That Eden shut and barred its door.

Alone in God's great world I seemed,
Whilst thou of thy lost Lilith
dreamed.
(Oh, who can measure such wide loneliness.)
'Now every little breeze that sings,
Sighs Lilith, like thy whisperings.

Oh, where can sorrow hide its face,
When Lilith, Lilith, fills all
space?'
(And Adam in the darkness spake no word.)
SUMMER'S FAREWELL
All in the time when Earth did most deplore
The cold, ungracious aspect of young May,
Sweet Summer came, and
bade him smile once more;
She wove bright garlands, and in winsome play
She bound him
willing captive. Day by day
She found new wiles wherewith his heart
to please;
Or bright the sun, or if the skies were gray,
They laughed together,
under spreading trees,
By running brooks, or on the sandy shores of
seas.
They were but comrades. To that radiant maid
No serious word he spake; no lovers' plea.
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