Trees and Other Poems | Page 3

etext was transcribed from the edition of 1914.]
Trees and Other Poems
"Mine is no horse with wings, to gain?The region of the Spheral chime;?He does but drag a rumbling wain,?Cheered by the coupled bells of rhyme."
Coventry Patmore
Trees and Other Poems?by Joyce Kilmer
To My Mother
Gentlest of critics, does your memory hold?(I know it does) a record of the days?When I, a schoolboy, earned your generous praise?For halting verse and stories crudely told??Over these childish scrawls the years have rolled,?They might not know the world's unfriendly gaze;?But still your smile shines down familiar ways,?Touches my words and turns their dross to gold.
More dear to-day than in that vanished time?Comes your nigh praise to make me proud and strong.?In my poor notes you hear Love's splendid chime,?So unto you does this, my work belong.?Take, then, a little gift of fragile rhyme:?Your heart will change it to authentic song.
[A number of these poems originally appeared in various periodicals.]
Contents
The Twelve-Forty-Five?Pennies?Trees?Stars?Old Poets?Delicatessen?Servant Girl and Grocer's Boy?Wealth?Martin?The Apartment House?As Winds That Blow Against A Star?St. Laurence?To A Young Poet Who Killed Himself?Memorial Day?The Rosary?Vision?To Certain Poets?Love's Lantern?St. Alexis?Folly?Madness?Poets?Citizen of the World?To a Blackbird and His Mate Who Died in the Spring?The Fourth Shepherd?Easter?Mount Houvenkopf?The House with Nobody in It?Dave Lilly?Alarm Clocks?Waverley
Trees and Other Poems
The Twelve-Forty-Five
(For Edward J. Wheeler)
Within the Jersey City shed?The engine coughs and shakes its head,?The smoke, a plume of red and white,?Waves madly in the face of night.?And now the grave incurious stars?Gleam on the groaning hurrying cars.?Against the kind and awful reign?Of darkness, this our angry train,?A noisy little rebel, pouts?Its brief defiance, flames and shouts --?And passes on, and leaves no trace.?For darkness holds its ancient place,?Serene and absolute, the king?Unchanged, of every living thing.?The houses lie obscure and still?In Rutherford and Carlton Hill.?Our lamps intensify the dark?Of slumbering Passaic Park.?And quiet holds the weary feet?That daily tramp through Prospect Street.?What though we clang and clank and roar?Through all Passaic's streets? No door?Will open, not an eye will see?Who this loud vagabond may be.?Upon my crimson cushioned seat,?In manufactured light and heat,?I feel unnatural and mean.?Outside the towns are cool and clean;?Curtained awhile from sound and sight?They take God's gracious gift of night.?The stars are watchful over them.?On Clifton as on Bethlehem?The angels, leaning down the sky,?Shed peace and gentle dreams. And I --?I ride, I blasphemously ride?Through all the silent countryside.?The engine's shriek, the headlight's glare,?Pollute the still nocturnal air.?The cottages of Lake View sigh?And sleeping, frown as we pass by.?Why, even strident Paterson?Rests quietly as any nun.?Her foolish warring children keep?The grateful armistice of sleep.?For what tremendous errand's sake?Are we so blatantly awake??What precious secret is our freight??What king must be abroad so late??Perhaps Death roams the hills to-night?And we rush forth to give him fight.?Or else, perhaps, we speed his way?To some remote unthinking prey.?Perhaps a woman writhes in pain?And listens -- listens for the train!?The train, that like an angel sings,?The train, with healing on its wings.?Now "Hawthorne!" the conductor cries.?My neighbor starts and rubs his eyes.?He hurries yawning through the car?And steps out where the houses are.?This is the reason of our quest!?Not wantonly we break the rest?Of town and village, nor do we?Lightly profane night's sanctity.?What Love commands the train fulfills,?And beautiful upon the hills?Are these our feet of burnished steel.?Subtly and certainly I feel?That Glen Rock welcomes us to her?And silent Ridgewood seems to stir?And smile, because she knows the train?Has brought her children back again.?We carry people home -- and so?God speeds us, wheresoe'er we go.?Hohokus, Waldwick, Allendale?Lift sleepy heads to give us hail.?In Ramsey, Mahwah, Suffern stand?Houses that wistfully demand?A father -- son -- some human thing?That this, the midnight train, may bring.?The trains that travel in the day?They hurry folks to work or play.?The midnight train is slow and old?But of it let this thing be told,?To its high honor be it said?It carries people home to bed.?My cottage lamp shines white and clear.?God bless the train that brought me here.
Pennies
A few long-hoarded pennies in his hand?Behold him stand;?A kilted Hedonist, perplexed and sad.?The joy that once he had,?The first delight of ownership is fled.?He bows his little head.?Ah, cruel Time, to kill?That splendid thrill!
Then in his tear-dimmed eyes?New lights arise.?He drops his treasured pennies on the ground,?They roll and bound?And scattered, rest.?Now with what zest?He runs to find his errant wealth again!
So unto men?Doth God, depriving that He may bestow.?Fame, health and money go,?But that they may, new found, be newly sweet.?Yea, at His feet?Sit, waiting us, to their concealment bid,?All they, our lovers, whom His Love hath hid.
Lo, comfort blooms on pain, and peace on strife,?And gain on loss.?What is the key to Everlasting Life??A blood-stained Cross.
Trees
(For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)
I think that I shall never see?A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest?Against the earth's sweet