GIFT OF
Carolina
THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE.
THE COLLEGE YEAR.
A BRIEF PILGRIMAGETOTHE HOLY LAND.
Illustrated.
A SCALLOP SHELL OF QUIET. Illustrated.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
THE YOSEMITE
AND OTHER VERSE
THE YOSEMITE
AND OTHER VERSE
BY
CAROLINE HAZARD
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ftitoertf&e $re# Cambribg*
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY CAROLINE HAZARD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published April iqij
CONTENTS
PART I
CALIFORNIA VERSE
THE YOSEMITE
I. THE WALLS 3
II. THE WATERS 7
THE TELEPHONE WIRE n
A SONG OF GOOD RIDING 15
THE BLESSING OF THE RAIN 18
THE GOLDEN STATE 20
IN THE GARDEN
I. A GARDEN SONG 22
II. " ROSES, ROSES, TALL AND STATELY " 24
III. THE BRIDE ROSE 25
IV. THE ARBOR 26
v. " OH, WHAT is MAN" 26
VI. THE INSCRIPTION 27
VII. THE TENANTS 27
VIII. "OH, ROSE WITH THE RED-GOLD HEART" 28
IX. THE PATH 3
362467
VI CONTENTS
THE COURT OF THE AGES
I. THE COURT 32
II. THE TOWER 33
III. THE CLOISTERS 34
IV. THE FOUNTAIN 35
V. NOON 36
VI. NIGHT 37
VII. VANISHED 38
PART II
THE SONNET 41
THE NEW CENTURY 42
TO MRS. AGASSIZ [ON HER BIRTHDAY] 43
TO JOSEPHINE LAZARUS 44
ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 45
THE PROBLEM 46
SLEEP 47
THE DOOR 48
UNITY 49
THE PURGE 50
THE MEADOW 51
THE FISHERMEN 52
CONTENTS Vll
UTTERANCE 58
"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE" 59
THE ALTRUIST 60
"ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE" 61
BROTHERHOOD 62
LORD, RESTORE ME 63
THE SPHERE 64
THE STRUGGLE 65
GRIEF 67
THE FLAIL 68
I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE, BUT A
SWORD" 69
GADARENES 7 o
"WHAT YE HEAR IN THE EAR" 71
"WHAT I TELL YOU IN DARKNESS" 72
AFFLICTION 73
SUPREMACY 74
QUERY 75
THE REPLY 76
HOLY GROUND 78
SWEET-PEA BLOSSOMS FOR EASTER 79
viii CONTENTS
THE CENTRE 8o
PLENITUDE 8l
GRATITUDE 8z
A MINISTERING HYMN 8 3
THE CHALICE 8 5
FOR LIGHT AND LEADING 8 6
HANDS AND FEET 8 7
A PRESENT HOPE 8 9
THE TIDE 9
COMPREHENSION 9 1
THE STAR 9 2
HYMNS AND ANTHEMS SUNG AT
WELLESLEY COLLEGE
I. MOUNT CARMEL. MUSIC BY ARTHUR FOOTE 93
94
94
II. VESPER HYMN
III. THIS IS THAT BREAD
MUSIC BY
IV. O SLOW OF HEART
H. C.
V. ALL HAIL TO THEE, CHILD JESUS
VI. THE WINE-PRESS
VII. WAKEN, SHEPHERDS
MACDOUGALL
95
9 6
97
THE VOICE OF MAN 99
CONTENTS IX
THE WESTERN LAND 102
FREEDOM S BRIDE 104
YOUTH 1 06
ILLUMINATION 107
TRANSLATIONS
STABAT MATER 1 09
BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON ( Von CrOHCgk, IfjS) I 13
AT EVENTIDE ( C. Lappe) 115
THE ANGELS ( Old French) 1 1 6
"QUITTEZ, PASTEURS" ( Old French) 118
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT (German) 121
PILGRIMAGE (Leitner) 123
ASPIRATION ( Emanuel Geibel) 125
PART III
STUDIES IN BLANK VERSE
THE ILLUMINATORS 13*
MIRIAM H3
A DISCIPLE OF JOHN 150
BETHESDA 161
THE PRIEST OF JUPITER 170
THE YOSEMITE, AND OTHER VERSE
PART I
CALIFORNIA VERSE
THE YOSEMITE
THE WALLS
I
BEHOLD the glorious archetype
Of all that man has ever planned
These massive walls in beauty stand,
In color soft and glowing, ripe
For the sun s touch, a mantle hung
Upon the peaks which blossom into color flung
Upon this wondrous work of time.
Here elements of every clime
Unite to make a marvel. Giant walls
Fit for Olympian halls
Are worked with hieroglyphic art
Older than Egypt. Here an arch
Is sprung, whose span the Roman builders heart
Would have rejoiced. Here a march
*? V
4 T H ? YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
Of Titan forms to rouse the pride
Of Cleopatra and her builders deified.
Wind, water, sun
An age-long task have done.
ii
And all men dreamed is here. St. Peter s dome
That dominates the hills of mighty Rome
Becomes a bubble, lightly blown
To please a child.
And how he would rejoice, workman unknown
Of mediaeval guild
Who set his mark upon the corner-stone of York,
Or he of Ulm, upon whose roof the stork
Fresh from the fanes of India finds her rest,
And in a mass of foliage builds her nest
That blooms in stone to make her bower.
Those Gothic men who took the hardest
And carved the tenderest
Of fruit and flower,
THE YOSEMITE
Who worked in miniature
Here see what Nature does,
Working in time that was,
Her Majesty, her sure
And perfect touch. Not only domes
And arches, towers and turrets high,
But piercing upward to the sky,
Reaching to the eternal homes
Of song and spirit, soar the spires
Of Nature s great Cathedral. What heavenly choirs
Shall sing in them ? The sweeping rain,
The wind, the bolt of thunder plays
Upon the diapason of its organ bass,
And piping birds with rapturous refrain
Chant orisons. Glory, glory everywhere
Seeks a voice, is hushed in prayer.
in
And then the sun on sudden quick withdraws
And leaves the whole in a harmonious pause,
THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
While gold turns silver, and red gray
In the half dusk of the declining day.
And the long preparation, as the night delays,
Bathes the vast walls
And the Cathedral stalls
With rock-hewn choir and nave,
Column and architrave
In one concord of silent, solemn praise.
THE YOSEMITE
THE WATERS
I
SUCH a stupendous leap ! The mighty stream
Aghast with that achievement staggers in distress,
Becomes a shadowy thing of dream
Upon the brink of nothingness.
Some giant archipelago of air
Obtruding from the clouds descends
With wavering outline, and a flare
Of iridescent color, trembles, blends,
Discloses dewy slopes, Titania s emerald grass,
Chasm and precipice Behemoth could not pass.
Rolling empurpled on the cloudless day
Tumultuous reveller, foaming, seething
With billows pearly as the driven spray
Of ocean wave, subsiding, heaving,
8 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
It floats between the earth and sky,
For sky too low, for earth too high,
A marvel and a wonder
Of color and of thunder.
ii
For it has life of sound.
The strong vibrations of the primal note
That shakes the solid ground,
That finds its echo in the song-bird s throat,
That shapes the life of man
Reverberations shouting to the spheres
Atune with Saturn, and the Milky Way,
The sound that o er creation ran
The gamut of its loves and fears
Night and day
Roars and riots in the ears
A deafening, stunning buffet of noise,
A strong, tumultuous draft of joys,
THEYOSEMITE 9
With rhythmic rise and fall,
A bugle call
That stoops to a caress
Of tenderness.
in
Blue and pink and amethyst
The sun-transfigured mist
Drop by drop is reassembled, caught
Upon the giant crags. The thing of dream
Is still of crystal beauty, taught
Once more the use of earth ; a limpid stream
Rolls through lush meadows, emerald green,
Green as the moon in Oriental night,
Blooming with flowers, starry bright,
The heaven above transposed, unrolled
For that clear stream to water, to enfold
With all the beauty it could glean
IO THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
From that stupendous flight
From out the quiver
Of God s delight
To be a river.
THE TELEPHONE WIRE
(In the high Sierras)
I HAVE stood here hundreds of years
Said the pine to the giant saw
That was slowly taking its life:
I have seen these waters at strife,
I have felt the mighty paw
Of bears ; I have known the fears
Of earthquake, and the shock
Of terrible falling rock.
And now in the hands of men
You with the sharpened teeth
Are taking my life. What then ?
I have seen men come and go,
I have seen the knife in sheath ;
Down from the great plateau
They have poured since the early days ;
I
12 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
They have needed my shelter and shade,
They have rested unafraid ;
They have pounded their lentils and maize
And built their fire, and sung
Beneath the roof that I made,
My canopy, high hung.
And now you are taking my life.
If it were to build a roof-tree
To set up a heath, I could joy
In the old ancestral employ
Of shelter and shade for the wife.
Or if it was heat that you want,
I d understand and give free
My store of sunshine, my vaunt
Of hundred of years, and expire
In the glow of a household fire.
THE TELEPHONE WIRE 13
But your teeth relentlessly cut
And I totter to a great fall ;
My hundreds of feet shall lie prone,
My beauty shall be overthrown,
For something so tiny, so small,
Smaller than any pine-nut,
A thread, like my needles of pine
Shining, gleaming, like gold.
Before this cobweb so fine
My hundreds of years must go.
I tremble as never a wind
In all my centuries old
Has made me, how they might blow,
For men are taking my life
With the teeth of this sharpened knife ;
What reason have they in mind ?
Then the spirit of the pines
That dwells in the upper air
14 THE YO SEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
And whispers even to men,
Answered the strong tree s prayer,
Its wonder of wherefore, and when,
Its importunate question why.
And it said : It is good to die
To make way for the love of man ;
You gave him shelter and shade ;
This thread you make room for can span
Time, distance, and space, unafraid
His voice, with its blessings proceeds
On its way to the goal it would find.
Nor water can drown it, nor wind.
You sheltered his bodily needs ;
You shaded his sleep on the sod,
And the pathway which footsore he trod.
This is the path of his mind.
A SONG OF GOOD RIDING
THE pulse of life is between my knees
And the might of a vital force
As I settle into the saddle at ease
And speak to my good white horse,
And turn to the hills, and lift mine eyes
To the strength that all about me lies,
And the world goes by at a gentle glide
As we move along, and I, I ride.
A lift of the rein and the gentle swing
Of the stately amble slow
Breaks to the lope with its even fling
That Californians know;
That covers the ground at a steady pace
As we climb the golden mountains face
Till the world spreads out so fair and wide,
And my horse grows hot, and I, I ride.
l6 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
Brother of mine with the strong white flanks
That take me along the trail,
Picking your way upon the banks
With courage that does not fail,
And braves the far and terrible roar
Of snorting chariots rushing before
With shrieks and hoots, and arrogant pride
Ahead of the fleetest horse to ride ;
You who could dash to destruction s rim
Upon this hillside of gold,
You who stand upon the brim
Of craters and ruins of old,
Yet do my bidding and heed my word
With that cock of the ear which leaves nothing
unheard,
And daintily step wherever I guide, -r-
The smaller mortal who boast that I ride.
A SONG OF GOOD RIDING IJ
I ride, I say, and think I am free
To guide with the bridle rein ;
But who can tell if there rides with me
Some angel, with spur of pain,
With gentle curb, or a touch of the whip,
To urge me on, despite a slip,
To where the hosts of God abide
As up Life s rugged way I ride.
THE BLESSING OF THE RAIN
THE great wide fields lie idle in the glory of the sun,
Tawny and pink and purple, the harvest is all won ;
A cloth of gold most splendid stretches the noble plain,
Waiting in the sunshine for the blessing of the rain.
The soil of all that corn land is hard as any stone ;
Picks must break the trenches to let the water run.
The vagrant winds are blowing, and toss the dust amain
Up from the fields awaiting the blessing of the rain.
Sad, silent, and dejected, in groups, or one by one,
The cattle stand and ponder, for fodder there is
none.
Their patient eyes are searching, and searching still
in vain ;
The pasture land is waiting for the blessing of the
rain.
THE BLESSING OF THE RAIN 19
And then some joyful morning when skies are gray
and dun,
" He shall come down like showers," the world is
new begun ;
The tender green appeareth, the earth is young again,
And all the land rejoices in the blessing of the rain.
THE GOLDEN STATE
CALIFORNIA, California,
The happy name lingers with an accent sweet
Dim with possibilities, with life replete,
California.
Golden apples of the Hesperides
Load down millions of her trees :
Gold of grain, and gold of flower,
Gold of mine she has for dower,
California.
Vancouver from the North,
Cabrillo from the South,
Searched her coasts to find a mouth
To unite the East and West,
Faring forth ;
And knew not that their quest
THE GOLDEN STATE 21
Was ended on this shore;
That here forevermore
Pine and olive, and heather and rose,
Arid desert, and mountain snows,
Make a land of all lands the best
California, Queen of the West.
IN THE GARDEN
(Santa Barbara)
I
A GARDEN SONG
MY garden lies in the heart of the world
Begirt by mountain heights,
Blue, and silver, and crimson impearled
In the lovely evening lights,
And beyond it stretches the azure sea j
O the depth, and mystery !
In the heart of my garden I can hear
The heart of the world as it beats,
For from the tower standing near
Time day by day repeats
Prime and matins, and noon and nones,
The bells chant the hours in solemn tones.
IN THE GARDEN
My garden s heart has the olive trees shade,
And the date palms whisper low;
Tacomas have an arbor made,
Acacias shed golden snow ;
For here the climates all combine
With palm and cypress, orange and pine.
And in the heart of my garden there grows
All flowers beneath the sun,
Myrtle and aloes, and aster and rose
And lavender, every one ;
For it takes tribute from every land ;
Lotus and lilac together stand.
My garden s heart has an eye of the soul,
For near the deodar
Lies a placid pool which mirrors the whole
Of all of the things that are.
Sun, moon, and stars, and flower and tree,
And time and space, and you, and me.
24 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
The inmost heart of the heart of the world
Here in my garden lies,
For life is in every blossom curled,
In every wing that flies.
T is a home of love, of care s surcease,
And all its paths are paths of peace.
II
Roses, roses, tall and stately,
Royal queens on thrones of crimson,
Strong and steady, with the brilliant leaflets.
Roses, roses, pink and blushing,
Drooping in a shy obeisance,
Hanging heads, but shedding spicy fragrance.
Roses, roses, white and climbing,
Snow-white clusters, on long garlands
Fitly to festoon a happy bridal.
INTHEGARDEN 25
Red, and pink, and white they blossom,
Each a joy, each full of sweetness,
Soft and silken in their glory,
And the garden paths become a rapture.
Ill
THE BRIDE ROSE
Oh, fair white rose, dost thou know whose hand
Planted thee long ago ?
Splendid and stately thou dost stand
With petals of driven snow,
Fit for a bride. And the hand laid low
That planted thy beauty so long ago.
She would have loved thy pearly bloom ;
She would have loved the breath
Of thy far-away delicate faint perfume
Fit for a bride of death.
Bloom for her, pray for her; lying low
Is the hand that planted thee long ago.
26 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
IV
THE ARBOR
For her he built this arbor
His rose of love, his bride,
With his own strong arms labor;
And here at eventide
In the cool of the day, in shadow, in the Eden they
had made,
They walked with God in the garden, and they were
unafraid.
V
Oh, what is man that he should dare to stand
In contemplation of this perfect flower,
That unabashed he takes it in his hand ;
That he should lift his eyes to heaven s blue dome ?
And yet he does. He clothes himself with power
And in a niche of time he builds his home.
INTHEGARDEN 2J
VI
THE INSCRIPTION
These stone walls stand, for he who builded them
Built strongly with his hands and heart and mind :
Oh, who can tell what business he may find
Upon the walls of New Jerusalem.
VII
THE TENANTS
A little hen quail in the garden
Is running with rapid feet
So fast she seems to sail ;
She disappears in the bushes,
Darting under the roses,
Then boldly takes the green pathway ;
And here her mate will join her,
And they saunter along serenely,
With tiny top-knots nodding,
And say to all beholders,
41 Foolish mortals, there s nothing doing ! "
28 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
But somewhere in the geraniums
Or under the tall roses,
Or perhaps in the Strelitzia,
With its arrow leaves and blossoms
That are like living pinions,
Somewhere in my garden
There is a new little Eden.
VIII
Oh, rose with the red-gold heart
And the dusk of the morning s flush,
With petals of saffron that blush
With crimson and carmine, and spread
A crown about thy head,
Oh, tell me what thou art !
Dear sister of my soul,
Thou standest fair and serene
Amid thy leaves dark sheen,
INTHEGARDEN
Stately, and quiet, and gay,
The livelong radiant day,
And knowest not thy goal.
And when the radiant day,
With its heat, and warmth, and light,
Is sinking toward the night,
With petals faded and curled
Away from a shrunken world,
Thou still dost stay;
And bravely bearest thy part,
Though gone is the glory and bloom ;
Yet sweet is the faint perfume
From petals hurt by the wind ;
And though all life is behind
Deep is thy red-gold heart.
30 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
IX
THE PATH
The green path of the garden
Begins at my door.
Straight and true it lies,
True as the compass needle,
Leading south, always south.
Green are the bushes beside it,
Green is the sod of the path,
With tiny purple flowers
To brighten the soft greenness.
And as the path leads onward
It slowly begins to soar.
Over the blossoming bushes,
Over the shady trees,
It runs to the roof of the Mission
Between the towers with bells;
INTHEGARDEN 3!
And far it runs beyond them
To reach the sea, and farther
Horizons, far horizons.
Is it a path for footsteps,
Or is it a path of the soul ?
And shall I ever follow
The green path of the garden ?
THE COURT OF THE AGES
(San Francisco, 1915)
I
THE COURT
WHO has not thrilled in some Cathedral close
With awe and gladness at the vast array
Of pinnacles, and spires piercing day,
And cloister arches adding row on rows
With tracery of stone on which there grows
The semblance of each flower of the May
Ah, here indeed the faintest soul can pray ;
Upborne by joy the saddest find repose.
Minster and cloister both could safely stand
Where water adds the living organ note
Within this court built by a Master s hand.
And men like pigmies in its great arcade
Become as gods, rejoicing it was made
And garner beauty for life s antidote.
THE COURT OF THE AGES 33
II
THE TOWER
Massive it stands, and four-square cleaves the sky,
Enriched with every gracious ornament
To please the sight, and give the mind content.
Cathedral tapers in great pairs stand by,
And sunburst monstrance shows that grace is nigh,
While splendid figures, priest, and friar bent,
Statesman, and knight in full accoutrement,
Guard where the mother sits with child on high.
And through the garlands of acanthus leaves
Are heads of cherubs, demons, and of sprites;
A tracery of loveliness that weaves
The ages into one, from conquests dim
Up to the chant of holy Seraphim
Where love sits brooding on the topmost heights.
34 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
III
THE CLOISTERS
Arch after arch, around the splendid court
They stand secure, low groined from pillars square
Enriched with sculptured forms from deep-sea lair,
Rising serenely, gladly to support
That weighty roof, round which there run the short
Carved pinnacles, the lily rises there,
And higher yet, with dominating air
St. Peter s cocks in rows make their retort.
And if St. Peter s cock above the crowd
Should really lift his voice which ages rent,
In all that beauty sounding doubly loud,
Would he find recreant souls who have denied,
Whose very noblest has been crucified ?
Crow, Chanticleer, and call us to repent.
THE COURT OF THE AGES 35
IV
THE FOUNTAIN
This is the world, this giant rounded ball
On which the boisterous waters gladly play
And deluge it as in primeval day,
Upborne by mythic figures sculptural
Of Time, and Force, and Energy, and all
The elements that grope their upward way.
And fear and anger, love and hate hold sway,
With all the passions on the pedestal.
The world emerging, and the world emerged !
The motives sculptured with sure mastery,
And living motives, all around it surged.
For men and women throng the balustrade,
Look on that elemental life portrayed,
Nor know it is their own epitome.
36 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
V
NOON
The glorious Sun, with ardent noonday blaze,
Beams down upon that beauty till each fret
Transfigured stands upon the parapet,
And limpid water all melodious plays
In drops of transient diamonds on the base
Of those great fountain figures gleaming wet,
And shows the fields of tender violet
Where myriad pansies bloom with thoughts of praise.
And then in white the cone man comes along
And people flock around him; in the shade
Of cloister arch they spread their lunch ; a throng
Of children headed by a black-robed nun
Goes quickly by for shelter from the sun,
And pigeons come for crumbs, quite unafraid.
THE COURT OF THE AGES 37
VI
NIGHT
What great enchanter with a mystic wand
Has changed the daytime beauty to a dream !
Along the cloisters countless lanterns gleam
And giant serpents at the fountain stand
Spouting live flame, north, south, at either hand
While night is pierced with many a gorgeous beam
From sculptured brasiers rises crimson steam,
The incense ritual of a vanished land.
Court of the Ages, if resplendent day
Shows every beauty, and the mighty whole
Touches the mind, when darksome night holds sway,
Then aspiration, and religious awe
Coeval with mankind, the ancient law
Broods o er the place to subjugate the soul.
38 THE YOSEMITE AND OTHER VERSE
VII
VANISHED
Now it is gone! It was too beautiful
To have long life, for each completed thing
Must perish as a blossom of the spring.
The moments hurry by, and time will dull
The perfect tints, and all the multiple
Assaults of elements combine to bring
Decay. But in perfection this took wing
And courted death to live inviolable.
And it is gone in all its loveliness,
With all its imagery to charm our eyes
Who can its mystic beauty quite express ?
For us who loved it in those timeless days
With age-long love, it lives, to be always
Foretaste and memory of Paradise.
PART II
THE SONNET
WITHIN this cloister garden sings the soul ;
Not flaunting in the fragrant summer air,
But standing rapt, aloof, as if in prayer;
These narrow walls its impulses control,
In these confines it seeks its joyful goal,
To breathe one tender word which shall prepare
A path for thought to climb up heaven s stair;
One word whose linked harmonies unroll.
So small, and yet exquisitely complete !
I stand within its meted bounds in awe
And marvel at its cadence subtly sweet.
Here poets have poured the secret of their hearts
Here is the art that can conceal all arts
And revel in the liberty of law.
THE NEW CENTURY
DAUGHTER of Time, the youngest of the years,
Not in sad mood we welcome thee to-day.
What though the force of Nature in fierce play
In days gone by begot a thousand fears ;
The seed of life was sown in bitter tears,
By kindly feet was trod the ancient way,
And brothers hands were grasped ; full many a ray
Showed what shall be, by that which now appears.
Nor vaunt thy mother s triumphs, though so great,
The lightning chained, the pulse of wreathed steam,
Her thought creation s lore did re-create,
And in the worm and clod to prophet s ken
The Lord was found ; man traced his origin ;
Welcome, thou daughter of a poet s dream.
42
TO MRS. AGASSIZ
ON HER BIRTHDAY
(December 5, 1901)
TO-DAY, with mystic numbers seven and nine,
You count your life of happy, fruitful years ;
And seven complete within itself appears,
The tale of colors which as light do shine,
The number of the attributes divine ;
And nine by close relations chases fears ;
With three times three it heartens and endears,
Divisible, yet ready to combine.
Complete within yourself, and yet in touch
With many lives, dear lady, so you stand;
To you was given, and you have given much ;
All women owe a loving debt to you,
You opened doors to let new light shine through
On countless lives in our beloved land.
43
TO JOSEPHINE LAZARUS
DEAR SOUL, with all the fervor of thy race,
Yet having cast tradition s hand away
And groping toward a larger, clearer day,
How shalt thou find thy life s true resting-place ?
A woman s soul glows in thine eager face,
A woman s longing yearnings o er it play,
Fixed, yet inconstant, unknown, and astray,