The Red Flower | Page 5

low,
In sodden green and watery gray.
But now from depths beyond our sight,
The tide is turning in the
night,
And floods of color long concealed
Come silent rising
toward the light,
Through garden bare and empty field.
And first, along the sheltered nooks,
The crocus runs in little brooks

Of joyance, till by light made bold
They show the gladness of their

looks
In shining pools of white and gold.
The tiny scilla, sapphire blue,
Is gently sweeping in, to strew
The
earth with heaven; and sudden rills
Of sunlit yellow, sweeping
through,
Spread into lakes of daffodils.
The hyacinths, with fragrant heads,
Have overflowed their sandy beds,

And fill the earth with faint perfume,
The breath that Spring
around her sheds.
And now the tulips break in bloom!
A sea, a rainbow-tinted sea,
A splendor and a mystery,
Floods o'er
the fields of faded gray:
The roads are full of folks in glee,
For
lo,--to-day is Easter Day!
April, 1916.
ENTER AMERICA
AMERICA'S PROSPERITY
They tell me thou art rich, my country: gold
In glittering flood has
poured into thy chest;
Thy flocks and herds increase, thy barns are
pressed
With harvest, and thy stores can hardly hold
Their
merchandise; unending trains are rolled
Along thy network rails of
East and West;
Thy factories and forges never rest;
Thou art
enriched in all things bought and sold!
But dost thou prosper? Better news I crave.
O dearest country, is it
well with thee
Indeed, and is thy soul in health?
A nobler people,
hearts more wisely brave,
And thoughts that lift men up and make
them free.--
These are prosperity and vital wealth!
The Hague, October 1, 1916.
THE GLORY OF SHIPS

The glory of ships is an old, old song,
since the days when the
sea-rovers ran
In their open boats through the roaring surf,
and the
spread of the world began;
The glory of ships is a light on the sea,

and a star in the story of man.
When Homer sang of the galleys of Greece
that conquered the Trojan
shore,
And Solomon lauded the barks of Tyre that
brought great
wealth to his door,
'Twas little they knew, those ancient men,
what
would come of the sail and the oar.
The Greek ships rescued the West from the East,
when they harried
the Persians home;
And the Roman ships were the wings of strength

that bore up the empire, Rome;
And the ships or Spain found a
wide new world
far over the fields of foam.
Then the tribes of courage at last saw clear
that the ocean was not a
bound,
But a broad highway, and a challenge to seek
for treasure as
yet unfound;
So the fearless ships fared forth to the search,
in joy
that the globe was round.
Their hulls were heightened, their sails spread out.
they grew with the
growth of their quest;
They opened the secret doors of the East,
and
the golden gates of the West;
And many a city of high renown
was
proud of a ship on its crest.
The fleets of England and Holland and France
were at strife with each
other and Spain;
And battle and storm sent a myriad ships
to sleep
in the depths of the main;
But the seafaring spirit could never be
drowned,
and it filled up the fleets again.
They greatened and grew, with the aid of steam,
to a wonderful, vast
array,
That carries the thoughts and the traffic of men
into every
harbor and bay;
And now in the world-wide work of the ships
'tis
England that leads the way.

O well for the leading that follows the law
of a common right on the
sea!
But ill for the leader who tries to hold
what belongs to
mankind in fee!
The way of the ships is an open way,
and the ocean
must ever be free!
Remember, O first of the maritime folk,
how the rise of your
greatness began.
It will live if you safeguard the round-the-world
road
from the shame of a selfish ban;
For the glory of ships is a
light on the sea,
and a star in the story of man!
September 12, 1916.
MARE LIBERUM
I
You dare to say with perjured lips,
"We fight to make the ocean free"?

You, whose black trail of butchered ships
Bestrews the bed of
every sea
Where German submarines have wrought
Their horrors!
Have you never thought,--
What you call freedom, men call piracy!
II
Unnumbered ghosts that haunt the wave,
Where you have murdered,
cry you down;
And seamen whom you would not save,
Weave now
in weed grown depths a crown
Of shame for your imperious head,--

A dark memorial of the dead,--
Women and children whom you
sent to drown.
III
Nay, not till thieves are set to guard
The gold, and corsairs called to
keep
O'er peaceful commerce watch and ward
And wolves do herd
the helpless sheep,
Shall men and women look to thee,
Thou
ruthless Old Man of the Sea,
To safeguard law and freedom on the
deep!

IV
In nobler breeds we put our trust;
The nations in whose sacred lore

The "Ought" stands out above the "Must,"
And honor rules in peace
and war.
With these we hold in soul and heart,
With these we
choose our lot and part,
Till Liberty is safe on sea and shore.
London Times,