Songs from Vagabondia | Page 4

of heart, as alert and elate in his rest,?As the nuthatch there that clings to the tip of the twig?And scolds at the wind that it buffets too rudely its nest.
Oh, what is it breathes in the air??Oh, what is it touches my cheek??There's a sense of a presence that lurks in the branches.?But where??Is it far, is it far to seek?
A ROVER'S SONG.
Snowdrift of the mountains,?Spindrift of the sea,?We who down the border?Rove from gloom to glee,--
Snowdrift of the mountains,?Spindrift of the sea,?There be no such gypsies?Over earth as we.
Snowdrift of the mountains,?Spindrift of the sea,?Let us part the treasure?Of the world in three.
Snowdrift of the mountains,?Spindrift of the sea,?You shall keep your kingdoms;?Joscelyn for me!
DOWN THE SONGO.
I.
Floating!?Floating--and all the stillness waits?And listens at the ivory gates,?Full of a dim uncertain presage?Of some strange, undelivered message.?There is no sound save from the bush?The alto of the shy wood-thrush,?And ever and anon the dip?Of a lazy oar.
The rhythmic drowsiness keeps time?To hazy subtleties of rhyme?That seem to slip?Through the lulled soul to seek the sleepy shore.?The idle clouds go floating by;?Above us sky, beneath us sky;?The sun shines on us as we lie?Floating.
It is a dream.?It is a dream, my love; see how?The ripples quiver at the prow,?And all the long reflections shake?Unsteadily beneath the lake.?The mists about the uplands show?Dim violet towers that come and go.?Phantasmagoric palaces?Rise trembling there,?As though one breath of waking weather?Would crash their airy walls together?With sudden stress,?While silent detonations shook the air--?Vast fabrics toppling to the ground?And vanishing without a sound.?Ah, love, these are not what we deem;?It is a dream.
II.
Let us dream on, then,----dream and die?Ere the dream pass.?Let us for once, like idle flowers,?Let slip the unregarded hours,?Like the wise flowers that lie?Unfretted by a feeble thought,?Future and past alike forgot,?Drinking the dew contentedly?In the cool grass.
III.
Look yonder where the clouds float; could we glide?As they, across the sky's blue shoreless tide,?What better were it than to dream?Across yon lake and into this still stream?
IV.
Trees and a glimpse of sky!?And the slow river, quiet as a pool!?And thou and I--and thou and I--?Kiss me! How soft the air is and how cool!
THE WANDER-LOVERS.
Down the world with Marna!?That's the life for me!?Wandering with the wandering wind,?Vagabond and unconfined!?Roving with the roving rain?Its unboundaried domain!?Kith and kin of wander-kind,?Children of the sea!
Petrels of the sea-drift!?Swallows of the lea!?Arabs of the whole wide girth?Of the wind-encircled earth!?In all climes we pitch our tents,?Cronies of the elements,?With the secret lords of birth?Intimate and free.
All the seaboard knows us?From Fundy to the Keys;?Every bend and every creek?Of abundant Chesapeake;?Ardise hills and Newport coves?And the far-off orange groves,?Where Floridian oceans break,?Tropic tiger seas.
Down the world with Marna,?Tarrying there and here!?Just as much at home in Spain?As in Tangier or Touraine!?Shakespeare's Avon knows us well,?And the crags of Neufchatel;?And the ancient Nile is fain?Of our coming near.
Down the world with Marna,?Daughter of the air!?Marna of the subtle grace,?And the vision in her face!?Moving in the measures trod?By the angels before God!?With her sky-blue eyes amaze?And her sea-blue hair!
Marna with the trees' life?In her veins a-stir!?Marna of the aspen heart?Where the sudden quivers start!?Quick-responsive, subtle, wild!?Artless as an artless child,?Spite of all her reach of art!?Oh, to roam with her!
Marna with the wind's will,?Daughter of the sea!?Marna of the quick disdain,?Starting at the dream of stain!?At a smile with love aglow,?At a frown a statued woe,?Standing pinnacled in pain?Till a kiss sets free!
Down the world with Marna,?Daughter of the fire!?Marna of the deathless hope,?Still alert to win new scope?Where the wings of life may spread?For a flight unhazarded!?Dreaming of the speech to cope?With the heart's desire!
Marna of the far quest?After the divine!?Striving ever for some goal?Past the blunder-god's control!?Dreaming of potential years?When no day shall dawn in fears!?That's the Marna of my soul,?Wander-bride of mine!
DISCOVERY.
When the bugler morn shall wind his horn,?And we wake to the wild to be,?Shall we open our eyes on the selfsame skies?And stare at the selfsame sea??O new, new day! though you bring no stay?To the strain of the sameness grim,?You are new, new, new--new through and through,?And strange as a lawless dream.
Will the driftwood float by the lonely boat?And our prisoner hearts unbar,?As it tells of the strand of an unseen land?That lies not far, not far??O new, new hope! O sweep and scope?Of the glad, unlying sea!?You are new, new, new--with the promise true?Of the dreamland isles to be.
Will the land-birds fly across the sky,?Though the land is not to see??Have they dipped and passed in the sea-line vast??Have we left the land a-lee??O new despair! I though the hopeless air?Grow foul with the calm and grieves,?You are new, new, new--and we cleave to you?As a soul to its freedom cleaves.
Does the falling night hide fiends to fight?And phantoms to affray??What demons lurk