MUSIC BENEATH THE STARS

MUSIC beneath the Stars! remembering him
Who music loved, and who on such a night
Had, through white paths celestial, winged his flight,
Hearing the chanting of the cherubim -
Which even our ears seem now to apprehend,
Rising and falling in waves of splendid sound
That bear our grieving spirits from the ground
And with eternal things lift them and blend.
Now Bach's great Aria charms the starlit dark;
Now soars the Largo, high angelical,

Soothing all mortal sorrow on that breath;
And now, O sweet and sovereign strain! now hark
Of mighty Beethoven the rise and fall.
Such music 'neath the stars abolished death.

THE BIRDS OF WESTLAND

PRINCETON, JUNE, 1908

O BIRDS of Westland, singing on

As blithely as of yore!

Do ye not know how deep he sleeps
Behind yon closed door?

Do ye not know that he who hailed
Your music, dawn by dawn,
Hath, since he harkened yesterday,
From hearing been withdrawn?

O happy birds! I think ye know
He loved your joyful song,
And therefore in the growing light
Ye carol loud and long.

THE VEIL OF STARS

O birds! ye know he would not wish
To hush that singing sweet,
Tho' since he heard your music last
That great heart ceased to beat.

THE VEIL OF STARS

459

O VEIL of stars! O dread magnificence!
Not unto man, O, not to man is given
The power to grasp with human sight and sense
Him, clothed upon by all the stars of heaven
And thou, O infinite littleness! not more

Doth infinite distance and immensity

That Presence veil, whom fain we would adore,
If mortals might the immortal dimly see.
Atoms and stars alike the Eternal hide,

Nor know we if in light or darkness dwells
The Ever Living! No voice from out the wide
Intense of starlight the great secret tells;

No word or sign in earth or skies above,
Save one the godhead in the eyes of love.

A barren stretch that slants to the salt sea's gray, 5.

A century's summer breezes shook, 122.

A little English earth and breathèd air, 157.

A little longer still in summer suns, 453.

A little, loosened leaf of painted paper, 447.

A maiden sought her love in a dark room, 88.

A melancholy, life o'er-wearied man, 335.

A night of stars and dreams, of dreams and sleep, 24.
A power there is that trembles through the earth, 256.
A sense of pureness in the air, 324.

A song for you, my darling, 277.

A song of the maiden morn, 20.

A soul inhuman? No, but human all, 164.

A Sower went forth to sow, 27.

A stranger in a far and ancient land, 250.

A violet lay in the grass, 78.

"A weary waste without her?" Ah, but think, 398.

A white lie, even as the black, I learned to hate, 370.

A woman, who has been a man's desire, 403.

A wondrous song, 333.

A word said in the dark, 87.

After sorrow's night, 91.

Agnostic! Ah, what idle name for him, 398.

Ah, be not false, sweet Splendor! 223.

Ah, loving, exquisite, enraptured soul, 393.

Ah, near, dear friend of many and many years! 328.

Ah, no! that sacred land, 239.

Ah, Time, go not so soon, 153.

Alas, poor, fated, passionate, shivering thing! 278.

All mouth, no mind: a mindless mouth in sooth, 303.

All round the glimmering circuit of the isle, 274.

All summer long the people knelt, 113.

An old, blind poet, sitting sad and lone, 336.
And can it be? 373.

"And this, then, is thy love," I hear thee say, 11.

And were that best, Love, dreamless, endless sleep! 9.
Angelo, thou art the master; for thou in thy art, 249.
As doth the bird, on outstretched pinions, dare, 175.
As down the city street, 145.

As I hobble, old and halt, 345.

As melting snow leaves bare the mountain-side, 29.
As soars the eagle, intimate of light, 266.

As the long day of cloud and storm and sun, 64.
At the dim end of day, 328.

"Back from the darkness to the light again!" 94.

Back to my body came I in the gray of the dawning, 266.
Back to the old place I've come home again, 417.
Battling, through trackless lands, 'gainst savage foes, 341.
Because Heaven's cost is Hell, and perfect joy, 52.

Because the rose must fade, 231.

Before the listening world behold him stand, 33.
Behold our first great warrior of the sea, 391.

Behold these maidens in a row, 156.

Beneath a stone wrenched from Egyptian sands, 421.

Beneath the deep and solemn midnight sky, 63.

Beyond all beauty is the unknown grace, 78.

Beyond the branches of the pine, 64.

Brother of sorrow and mortality! 69.

and his,

I am afraid! 308.

But then the sunset smiled, 90.

But yesterday a world of haze, 327.
By this road have past, 258.

By this stairway narrow, steep, 212.

Call him not blind, 278.

Call me not dead when I, indeed, have gone, 66.
Came to a master of song, 225.

Cast into the pit, 175.

Caught in the golden net of the poet's song, 444.

Chide not the poet that he strives for beauty, 377.

Come, soldiers, arouse ye! 116.

Come, Spirit of Song! true, faithful friend of mine! 112.
Come to me ye who suffer, for to all, 8.

Comrades, the circle narrows, heads grow white, 193.

Dark Southern girl! the dream-like day is past, 347.
Dear bard and prophet, that thy rest is deep, 392.
Dear friend, who lovedst well this pleasant life! 67.
Dear heart, I would that after many days, 35.
Death is a sorry plight, 224.

Deep in the ocean of night, 148.

Despise not thou thy father's ancient creed, 54.

"Do you love me?" Elsie asked, 222.

Done is the day of care, 217.

Down in the meadow and up on the hight, 221.

Each moment holy is, for out from God, 66.

Each New Year is a leaf of our love's rose, 228.

Each of us answers to a call, 125.

Each picture was a painted memory, 260.

Edmund, in this book you'll find, 138.

Enchanted city, O farewell, farewell! 348.

Enraptured memory, and all ye powers of being, 202.

Erewhile I sang the praise of them whose lustrous names, 161.