Yet footfall or bugle-call The birds are calling still! Wallace Irwin [1875 THE TOIL OF THE TRAIL WHAT have I gained by the toil of the trail? I have found once again the lore I had lost I have broadened my hand to the cinch and the axe, I have laid my flesh to the rain; I was hunter and trailer and guide; I have touched the most primitive wildness again. I have threaded the wild with the stealth of the deer, No eagle is freer than I; No mountain can thwart me, no torrent appall, So long as I live these joys will remain, I have touched the most primitive wildness again. Hamlin Garland [1860 DO YOU FEAR THE WIND? Do you fear the force of the wind, The slash of the rain? Go face them and fight them, Be savage again. Go hungry and cold like the wolf, Go wade like the crane: The palms of your hands will thicken, The skin of your cheek will tan, You'll grow ragged and weary and swarthy, But you'll walk like a man! Hamlin Garland [1860 The King's Highway 1637 THE KING'S HIGHWAY "El Camino Real" ALL in the golden weather, forth let us ride to-day, The blue skies above us, and below the shining sea; It's a long road and sunny, and the fairest in the worldThere are peaks that rise above it in their snowy mantles curled, And it leads from the mountains through a hedge of chap arral, Down to the waters where the sea gulls call. It's a long road and sunny, it's a long road and old, They made it for the sandals of the sinner-folk of old; We will take the road together through the morning's golden glow, And we'll dream of those who trod it in the mellowed long ago; We will stop at the Missions where the sleeping padres lay, And we'll bend a knee above them for their souls' sake to pray. We'll ride through the valleys where the blossom's on the tree, Through the orchards and the meadows with the bird and the bee, And we'll take the rising hills where the manzanitas grow, Old Conquistadores, O brown priests and all, Give us your ghosts for company when night begins to fall; There's many a road to travel, but it's this road to-day, With the breath of God about us on the King's Highway. John S. McGroarty [1862 THE FORBIDDEN LURE "LEAVE all and follow-follow!" To boughs the night sifts through: "Leave all and follow-follow!" Oh, I must never listen, Call not outside my door. Green leaves, you must not glisten Oh, Beauty, wandering Beauty, THE WANDER-LOVERS Down the world with Marna! That's the life for me! Wandering with the wandering wind, Vagabond and unconfined! The Wander-Lovers Roving with the roving rain. Petrels of the sea-drift! Arabs of the whole wide girth With the secret lords of birth All the seaboard knows us Down the world with Marna, Tarrying there and here! Just as much at home in Spain And the crags of Neufchâtel; 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! 1639 Marna with the trees' life In her veins a-stir! Marna of the aspen heart Where the sudden quivers start! Marna with the wind's will, Marna of the quick disdain, 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! Richard Hovey [1864-1900] THE SEA GIPSY I AM fevered with the sunset, I am fretful with the bay, |