Part 1

Poetry A Magazine of Verse

VOLUME I. October-March, 1912-13

Harriet Monroe ~ Editor

_Reprinted with the permission of the original publisher._

A. M. S. REPRINT CO. New York, New York

Copyright By HARRIET MONROE 1912-1913

Poetry VOL. I A Magazine of Verse NO. 1

OCTOBER, 1912

POETRY

I

It is a little isle amid bleak seas-- An isolate realm of garden, circled round By importunity of stress and sound, Devoid of empery to master these. At most, the memory of its streams and bees, Borne to the toiling mariner outward-bound, Recalls his soul to that delightful ground; But serves no beacon toward his destinies.

It is a refuge from the stormy days, Breathing the peace of a remoter world Where beauty, like the musing dusk of even, Enfolds the spirit in its silver haze; While far away, with glittering banners furled, The west lights fade, and stars come out in heaven.

II

It is a sea-gate, trembling with the blast Of powers that from the infinite sea-plain roll, A whelming tide. Upon the waiting soul As on a fronting rock, thunders the vast Groundswell; its spray bursts heavenward, and drives past In fume and sound articulate of the whole Of ocean's heart, else voiceless; on the shoal Silent; upon the headland clear at last.

From darkened sea-coasts without stars or sun, Like trumpet-voices in a holy war, Utter the heralds tidings of the deep. And where men slumber, weary and undone, Visions shall come, incredible hopes from far,-- And with high passion shatter the bonds of sleep.

_Arthur Davison Ficke_

I AM THE WOMAN

I am the Woman, ark of the law and its breaker, Who chastened her steps and taught her knees to be meek, Bridled and bitted her heart and humbled her cheek, Parcelled her will, and cried "Take more!" to the taker, Shunned what they told her to shun, sought what they bade her seek, Locked up her mouth from scornful speaking: now it is open to speak.

I am she that is terribly fashioned, the creature Wrought in God's perilous mood, in His unsafe hour. The morning star was mute, beholding my feature, Seeing the rapture I was, the shame, and the power, Scared at my manifold meaning; he heard me call "O fairest among ten thousand, acceptable brother!" And he answered not, for doubt; till he saw me crawl And whisper down to the secret worm, "O mother, Be not wroth in the ancient house; thy daughter forgets not at all!" I am the Woman, fleër away, Soft withdrawer back from the maddened mate, Lurer inward and down to the gates of day And crier there in the gate, "What shall I give for thee, wild one, say! The long, slow rapture and patient anguish of life, Or art thou minded a swifter way? Ask if thou canst, the gold, but oh if thou must, Good is the shining dross, lovely the dust! Look at me, I am the Woman, harlot and heavenly wife; Tell me thy price, be unashamed; I will assuredly pay!"

I am also the Mother: of two that I bore I comfort and feed the slayer, feed and comfort the slain. Did they number my daughters and sons? I am mother of more! Many a head they marked not, here in my bosom has lain, Babbling with unborn lips in a tongue to be, Far, incredible matters, all familiar to me. Still would the man come whispering, "Wife!" but many a time my breast Took him not as a husband: I soothed him and laid him to rest Even as the babe of my body, and knew him for such. My mouth is open to speak, that was dumb too much! I say to you I am the Mother; and under the sword Which flamed each way to harry us forth from the Lord, I saw Him young at the portal, weeping and staying the rod, And I, even I was His mother, and I yearned as the mother of God.

I am also the Spirit. The Sisters laughed When I sat with them dumb in the portals, over my lamp, Half asleep in the doors: for my gown was raught Off at the shoulder to shield from the wind and the rain The wick I tended against the mysterious hour When the Silent City of Being should ring with song, As the Lord came in with Life to the marriage bower. "Look!" laughed the elder Sisters; and crimson with shame I hid my breast away from the rosy flame. "Ah!" cried the leaning Sisters, pointing, doing me wrong, "Do you see?" laughed the wanton Sisters, "She will get her lover ere long!" And it was but a little while till unto my need He was given indeed, And we walked where waxing world after world went by; And I said to my lover, "Let us begone, "Oh, let us begone, and try "Which of them all the fairest to dwell in is, "Which is the place for us, our desirable clime!" But he said, "They are only the huts and the little villages, Pleasant to go and lodge in rudely over the vintage-time!" Scornfully spake he, being unwise, Being flushed at heart because of our walking together. But I was mute with passionate prophecies; My heart went veiled and faint in the golden weather, While universe drifted by after still universe. Then I cried, "Alas, we must hasten and lodge therein, One after one, and in every star that they shed! A dark and a weary thing is come on our head-- To search obedience out in the bosom of sin, To listen deep for love when thunders the curse; For O my love, behold where the Lord hath planted In every star in the midst His dangerous Tree! Still I must pluck thereof and bring unto thee, Saying, "The coolness for which all night we have panted; Taste of the goodly thing, I have tasted first!" Bringing us noway coolness, but burning thirst, Giving us noway peace, but implacable strife, Loosing upon us the wounding joy and the wasting sorrow of life!

I am the Woman, ark of the Law and sacred arm to upbear it, Heathen trumpet to overthrow and idolatrous sword to shear it: Yea, she whose arm was round the neck of the morning star at song, Is she who kneeleth now in the dust and cries at the secret door, "Open to me, O sleeping mother! The gate is heavy and strong. "Open to me, I am come at last; be wroth with thy child no more. "Let me lie down with thee there in the dark, and be slothful with thee as before!"

_William Vaughan Moody_

TO WHISTLER, AMERICAN

_On the loan exhibit of his paintings at the Tate Gallery._

You also, our first great, Had tried all ways; Tested and pried and worked in many fashions, And this much gives me heart to play the game.

Here is a part that's slight, and part gone wrong, And much of little moment, and some few Perfect as Dürer!

"In the Studio" and these two portraits,[A] if I had my choice! And then these sketches in the mood of Greece?

You had your searches, your uncertainties, And this is good to know--for us, I mean, Who bear the brunt of our America And try to wrench her impulse into art.

You were not always sure, not always set To hiding night or tuning "symphonies"; Had not one style from birth, but tried and pried And stretched and tampered with the media.

You and Abe Lincoln from that mass of dolts Show us there's chance at least of winning through.

_Ezra Pound_

[Footnote A:

"Brown and Gold--de Race." "Grenat et Or--Le Petit Cardinal."

]

MIDDLE-AGED

A STUDY IN AN EMOTION

"'Tis but a vague, invarious delight As gold that rains about some buried king.

As the fine flakes, When tourists frolicking Stamp on his roof or in the glazing light Try photographs, wolf down their ale and cakes And start to inspect some further pyramid;

As the fine dust, in the hid cell beneath Their transitory step and merriment, Drifts through the air, and the sarcophagus Gains yet another crust Of useless riches for the occupant, So I, the fires that lit once dreams Now over and spent, Lie dead within four walls And so now love Rains down and so enriches some stiff case, And strews a mind with precious metaphors,

And so the space Of my still consciousness Is full of gilded snow,

The which, no cat has eyes enough To see the brightness of."

_Ezra Pound_

FISH OF THE FLOOD

Fish of the flood, on the bankèd billow Thou layest thy head in dreams; Sliding as slides thy shifting pillow, One with the streams Of the sea is thy spirit.

Gean-tree, thou spreadest thy foaming flourish Abroad in the sky so grey; It not heeding if it thee nourish, Thou dost obey, Happy, its moving.

So, God, thy love it not needeth me, Only thy life, that I blessèd be.

_Emilia Stuart Lorimer_

TO ONE UNKNOWN

I have seen the proudest stars That wander on through space, Even the sun and moon, But not your face.

I have heard the violin, The winds and waves rejoice In endless minstrelsy, Yet not your voice.

I have touched the trillium, Pale flower of the land, Coral, anemone, And not your hand.

I have kissed the shining feet Of Twilight lover-wise, Opened the gates of Dawn-- Oh not your eyes!

I have dreamed unwonted things, Visions that witches brew, Spoken with images, Never with you.

_Helen Dudley_

SYMPHONY OF A MEXICAN GARDEN

1. THE GARDEN _Poco sostenuto_ in A major The laving tide of inarticulate air.

_Vivace_ in A major The iris people dance.

2. THE POOL _Allegretto_ in A minor Cool-hearted dim familiar of the doves.

3. THE BIRDS _Presto_ in F major I keep a frequent tryst.

_Presto meno assai_ The blossom-powdered orange-tree.

4. TO THE MOON _Allegro con brio_ in A major Moon that shone on Babylon.

TO MOZART

_What junipers are these, inlaid With flame of the pomegranate tree? The god of gardens must have made This still unrumored place for thee To rest from immortality, And dream within the splendid shade Some more elusive symphony Than orchestra has ever played._

I In A major _Poco sostenuto_

The laving tide of inarticulate air Breaks here in flowers as the sea in foam, But with no satin lisp of failing wave: The odor-laden winds are very still. An unimagined music here exhales In upcurled petal, dreamy bud half-furled, And variations of thin vivid leaf: Symphonic beauty that some god forgot. If form could waken into lyric sound, This flock of irises like poising birds Would feel song at their slender feathered throats, And pour into a grey-winged aria Their wrinkled silver fingermarked with pearl; That flight of ivory roses high along The airy azure of the larkspur spires Would be a fugue to puzzle nightingales With too-evasive rapture, phrase on phrase. Where the hibiscus flares would cymbals clash, And the black cypress like a deep bassoon Would hum a clouded amber melody.

But all across the trudging ragged chords That are the tangled grasses in the heat, The mariposa lilies fluttering Like trills upon some archangelic flute, The roses and carnations and divine Small violets that voice the vanished god, There is a lure of passion-poignant tone Not flower-of-pomegranate--that finds the heart As stubborn oboes do--can breathe in air, Nor poppies, nor keen lime, nor orange-bloom.

What zone of wonder in the ardent dusk Of trees that yearn and cannot understand, Vibrates as to the golden shepherd horn That stirs some great adagio with its cry And will not let it rest? O tender trees, Your orchid, like a shepherdess of dreams, Calls home her whitest dream from following Elusive laughter of the unmindful god!

_Vivace_

The iris people dance Like any nimble faun: To rhythmic radiance They foot it in the dawn. They dance and have no need Of crystal-dripping flute Or chuckling river-reed,-- Their music hovers mute. The dawn-lights flutter by All noiseless, but they know! Such children of the sky Can hear the darkness go. But does the morning play Whatever they demand-- Or amber-barred bourrée Or silver saraband?

THE POOL II. In A minor _Allegretto_

Cool-hearted dim familiar of the doves, Thou coiled sweet water where they come to tell Their mellow legends and rehearse their loves, As what in April or in June befell And thou must hear of,--friend of Dryades Who lean to see where flower should be set To star the dusk of wreathed ivy braids, They have not left thy trees, Nor do tired fauns thy crystal kiss forget, Nor forest-nymphs astray from distant glades.

Thou feelest with delight their showery feet Along thy mossy margin myrtle-starred, And thine the heart of wildness quick to beat At imprint of shy hoof upon thy sward: Yet who could know thee wild who art so cool, So heavenly-minded, templed in thy grove Of plumy cedar, larch and juniper? O strange ecstatic Pool, What unknown country art thou dreaming of, Or temple than this garden lovelier?

Who made thy sky the silver side of leaves, And poised its orchid like a swan-white moon Whose disc of perfect pallor half deceives The mirror of thy limpid green lagoon, He loveth well thy ripple-feathered moods, Thy whims at dusk, thy rainbow look at dawn! Dream thou no more of vales Olympian: Where pale Olympus broods There were no orchid white as moon or swan, No sky of leaves, no garden-haunting Pan!

THE BIRDS III. In F major _Presto_

I keep a frequent tryst With whirr and shower of wings: Some inward melodist Interpreting all things Appoints the place, the hours. Dazzle and sense of flowers, Though not the least leaf stir, May mean a tanager: How rich the silence is until he sings!

The smoke-tree's cloudy white Has fire within its breast. What winged mere delight There hides as in a nest And fashions of its flame Music without a name? So might an opal sing If given thrilling wing, And voice for lyric wildness unexpressed.

In grassy dimness thatched With tangled growing things, A troubadour rose-patched, With velvet-shadowed wings, Seeks a sustaining fly. Who else unseen goes by Quick-pattering through the hush? Some twilight-footed thrush Or finch intent on small adventurings?

I have no time for gloom, For gloom what time have I? The orange is in bloom; Emerald parrots fly Out of the cypress-dusk; Morning is strange with musk. The wild canary now Jewels the lemon-bough, And mocking-birds laugh in the rose's room.

THE ORANGE TREE In D Major _Presto meno assai_

The blossom-powdered orange tree, For all her royal speechlessness, Out of a heart of ecstasy Is singing, singing, none the less!

Light as a springing fountain, she Is spray above the wind-sleek turf: Dream-daughter of the moon's white sea And sister to its showered surf!

TO THE MOON IV. In A major _Allegro con brio_

Moon that shone on Babylon, Searching out the gardens there, Could you find a fairer one Than this garden, anywhere? Did Damascus at her best Hide such beauty in her breast?

When you flood with creamy light Vines that net the sombre pine, Turn the shadowed iris white, Summon cactus stars to shine, Do you free in silvered air Wistful spirits everywhere?

Here they linger, there they pass, And forget their native heaven: Flit along the dewy grass Rare Vittoria, Sappho, even! And the hushed magnolia burns Incense in her gleaming urns.

When the nightingale demands Word with Keats who answers him, Shakespeare listens--understands-- Mindful of the cherubim; And the South Wind dreads to know Mozart gone as seraphs go.

Moon of poets dead and gone, Moon to gods of music dear, Gardens they have looked upon Let them re-discover here: Rest--and dream a little space Of some heart-remembered place!

_Grace Hazard Conkling_

EDITORIAL COMMENT

AS IT WAS

Once upon a time, when man was new in the woods of the world, when his feet were scarred with jungle thorns and his hands were red with the blood of beasts, a great king rose who gathered his neighbors together, and subdued the wandering tribes. Strange cunning was his, for he ground the stones to an edge together, and bound them with thongs to sticks; and he taught his people to pry apart the forest, and beat back the ravenous beasts. And he bade them honeycomb the mountainside with caves, to dwell therein with their women. And the most beautiful women the king took for his own, that his wisdom might not perish from the earth. And he led the young men to war and conquered all the warring tribes from the mountains to the sea. And when fire smote a great tree out of heaven, and raged through the forest till the third sun, he seized a burning brand and lit an altar to his god. And there, beside the ever-burning fire, he sat and made laws and did justice. And his people loved and feared him.

And the king grew old. And for seven journeys of the sun from morn to morn he moved not, neither uttered word. And the hearts of the people were troubled, but none dared speak to the king's despair; neither wise men nor warriors dared cry out unto him.

Now the youngest son of the king was a lad still soft of flesh, who had never run to battle not sat in council nor stood before the king. And his heart yearned for his father, and he bowed before his mother and said, "Give me thy blessing, for I have words within me for the king; yea, as the sea sings to the night with waves will my words roll in singing unto his grief." And his mother said, "Go, my son; for thou hast words of power and soothing, and the king shall be healed."

So the youth went forth and bowed him toward the king's seat. And the wise men and warriors laid hands upon him, and said, "Who art thou, that thou shouldst go in ahead of us to him who sitteth in darkness?" And the king's son rose, and stretched forth his arms, and said, "Unhand me and let me go, ye silent ones, who for seven sun-journeys have watched in darkness and uttered no word of light! Unhand me, for as a fig-tree with fruit, so my heart is rich with words for the king."

Then he put forth his strength and strode on singing softly, and bowed him before the king. And he spake the king's great deeds in cunning words--his wars and city-carvings and wise laws, his dominion over men and beasts and the thick woods of the earth; his greeting of the gods with fire.

And lo, the king lifted up his head and stretched forth his arms and wept. "Yea, all these things have I done," he said, "and they shall perish with me. My death is upon me, and I shall die, and the tribes I have welded together shall be broken apart, and the beasts shall win back their domain, and the green jungle shall overgrow my mansions. Lo, the fire shall go out on the altar of the gods, and my glory shall be as a crimson cloud that the night swallows up in darkness."

Then the young man lifted up his voice and cried: "Oh, king, be comforted! Thy deeds shall not pass as a cloud, neither shall thy laws be strewn before the wind. For I will carve thy glory in rich and rounded words--yea, I will string thy deeds together in jewelled beads of perfect words that thy sons shall wear on their hearts forever."

"Verily thy words are rich with song," said the king; "but thou shalt die, and who will utter them? Like twinkling foam is the speech of man's mouth; like foam from a curling wave that vanishes in the sun."

"Nay, let thy heart believe me, oh king my father," said the youth. "For the words of my mouth shall keep step with the ripple of waves and the beating of wings; yea, they shall mount with the huge paces of the sun in heaven, that cease not for my ceasing. Men shall sound them on suckling tongues still soft with milk, they shall run into battle to the tune of thy deeds, and kindle their fire with the breath of thy wisdom. And thy glory shall be ever living, as a jewel of jasper from the earth--yea, as the green jewel of jasper carven into a god for the rod of thy power, oh king, and of the power of thy sons forever."

The king sat silent till the going-down of the sun. Then lifted he his head, and stroked his beard, and spake: "Verily the sun goes down, and my beard shines whiter than his, and I shall die. Now therefore stand at my right hand, O son of my wise years, child of my dreams. Stand at my right hand, and fit thy speech to music, that men may hold in their hearts thy rounded words. Forever shalt thou keep thy place, and utter thy true tale in the ears of the race. And woe be unto them that hear thee not! Verily that generation shall pass as a cloud, and its glory shall be as a tree that withers. For thou alone shalt win the flying hours to thee, and keep the beauty of them for the joy of men forever."

_H. M._

ON THE READING OF POETRY

In the brilliant pages of his essay on Jean François Millet, Romain Rolland says that Millet, as a boy, used to read the Bucolics and the Georgics "with enchantment" and was "seized by emotion--when he came to the line, 'It is the hour when the great shadows seek the plain.'

Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae?"

To the lover and student of poetry, this incident has an especial charm and significance. There is something fine in the quick sympathy of an artist in one kind, for beauty expressed by the master of another medium. The glimpse M. Rolland gives us of one of the most passionate art-students the world has ever known, implies with fresh grace a truth Anglo-Saxons are always forgetting--that poetry is one of the great humanities, that poetry is one of the great arts of expression.

Many of our customs conspire to cause, almost to force, this forgetting. Thousands of us have been educated to a dark and often permanent ignorance of classic poetry, by being taught in childhood to regard it as written for the purpose of illustrating Hadley's Latin, or Goodwin's Greek grammar, and composed to follow the rules of versification at the end of the book. It seems indeed one of fate's strangest ironies that the efforts of these distinguished grammarians to unveil immortal masterpieces are commonly used in schools and colleges to enshroud, not to say swaddle up, the images of the gods "forever young," and turn them into mummies. In our own country, far from perceiving in Vergil's quiet music the magnificent gesture of nature that thrilled his Norman reader--far from conceiving of epic poetry as the simplest universal tongue, one early acquires a wary distrust of it as something one must constantly labor over.