BREAK OF DAY



BREAK OF DAY

AND OTHET{ POEMS



ROLLO RUSSELL



T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

MDCCCXCIII



s



CONTENTS.



PAGE-
TO THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM . . .7

INFANCY . ... 9

YOUTH ...... 13

A MAY MORNING .... 24

A VISION OF THE WORLD'S PROGRESS . . 26

RENENS-SUR-ROCHE .... 28

BREAK OF DAY . . . . .29

AD ALMAM ..... 32

ON AN OLD TOMBSTONE . . -33

UBI DIES? ..... 34

ALETHEIA . . . . . -35

TO MY MOTHER . 36

TO N. . 37

HUNTING SONG . ... 38

VIOLA . . . . . -39

GENOA ...... 41

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES . . -43

THE SCEPTIC ..... 46

THE AGNOSTIC . . . . .48

PREPARATION ..... 50

THE REVOLUTIONARY IDEALIST . . -51
ON SEEING A LETTER SIGNED " JANE THE

QUEEN," AT LOSELY, IN SURREY . 54

MIGHTY WORKS . . . -55

VAIN IMAGININGS .... 56

AD SCIENTIAM . . . -59
5



6 CONTENTS.

I'AGE

TWO FATES . . . . 62

THE KING . . -63

MILO'S ERRAND . . 66
FAIRYLAND . ... 77

THE STATESMAN . . . 80

THOMAS CARLYLE . . . . .82
GIORDANO BRUNO IN PRISON BEFORE HIS

MARTYRDOM BY FIRE . . .88
PROCLAIMING THE PAPAL SENTENCE AGAINST

LUTHER . . . . -91

RESPICE ..... 92

IMPATIENCE . . . . -94

VOICES . . ... 96

WESTMINSTER ABBEY . . . .112

BEFORE SUNRISE . . . . 113



TRANSLATIONS.

SONNET 44 FROM THE " EROICI FUROR1 " . 114

NAHE DES GELIEBTEN . . . 115

AN DIE MUSIK . . . . . Il6

STILLE THRANEN . . . . 1 17

"DU BIST WIE EINE BLUME " . . Il8

" WILLST DU DEIN HERZ MIR GEBEN " . lig
IHRE STIMME ..... I2O

HEIDEN ROSLEIN ... 121

"DU MEINE SEELE, DU MEIN HERZ " . . 122

THE SONG OF NORNA .... 123

ORISONS AND HYMNS.

RICHES ...... 124

SURGAMUS ..... 125

Ovpavog, ETC. .... 126-133



TO THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM.

IN THE WORLD-CATHEDRAL.

O WORD of God writ in the life of worlds,
Kind influence flowing from the far All Good,
Spring of unseen and everlasting light,
In which the spirits of the just go forth
And have their being ; ever-present Sun
Hidden awhile like this material star
By earth and clouds, yet shining without pause
Within the orbit of each human heart,
Spirit of Wisdom, whose pale broken beams,
Through man's dark sorrows struggling, reach

their end

Alight as to their haven in true minds,
Beating soul-music on our clay-bound life,
The praise hymn of high heaven faintly

caught,
Tidings of that new world where all un-

marred

The law of God works out the consort full,
Help us, O Spirit, to receive Thy gift
As worthy, and as knowing but in part,
Most humble, because most aware of Thee ;



8 TO THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM.

Not in the pride of knowledge hardly won,
Nor scornful of the foolish wandering steps
Which might have been our own, but un-
abashed,

Praising the Giver of so much new light
As our own vain spirits may with reverence

bear.

Come wisdom, silent new-creating joy,
That habitest the temple of pure hearts,
Eternal treasure of the angel host,
Yielding unmeasured hope not matched with

sense
That gazes wonderstruck through Time's

harsh night,

Thou seest further than mere numbers teach,
Beyond the stars, beyond this paltry stage ;
Not most in matter, nor obedient globes,
Nor things nor energy that blindly move,
Though these be great, is thy quest satisfied,
But in the contrite God-adoring love,
Faithful through doubt, unquenched through

seas of flame

Working, responsive to the heavenly will,
The highest good, the service most divine,
The hidden glory of the great Unknown,
Whence a new nobleness makes perfect life.



INFANCY.



INFANCY.

A CRY from out the unknown vasty void,
A life new come to this dim shadowy stage,
A spiritual graft put forth from Heaven.
A fresh-formed wavelet on the sea of pain,
Woke by the gentle touch of morning air
To droop or grow, speeding we know not

where,

A poor weak wavelet on the boundless main.
A faint far cry that feels no listener near,
Pale vacant wonder without hope or fear,
Gazing bewildered on the moving scene ;
No time, no space, now seeking what things

mean,

Anon in dreamless sleep reseeking night,
Now claiming in loud untaught tones the

right

Of helpless instinct to be helped to live.
O strange and piteous sight, wan hope of

man,

Most venerable portent, but in form
Contemptible beyond all earthly things,
Bearing no mark of a divine descent,
No presage of the glory of mankind !



io INFANCY.

The chick that hops forth from its prisoning

shell,
Strides the green planet with more jaunty

wit

Than thou, soft crumb of ugly mottled flesh
By twenty months informed. This is our

pride,

That thou art most removed from competence,
Least nature-favoured because least her child.
Wailest thou, little one, from thy blank heart,
Unconscious witness to the imperfect world ?
Or is it but the stirring of life-force
Around thy inner self not thee, but for thee
Demanding that by which the budding germ,
Not of the flesh, may be retained, held fast,
And gather strength within the strengthening

house

Here in our low arena of decay,
Where the fair springtime scatters killing

frosts,

And flowers and ashes mingle at our feet,
Cause ever chasing cause ? Or is that cry
So heart-constraining, woful-powerful,
The mere crude working of chance heat and

sound

Playing the truant in a baby's throat ?
How grates it then so keenly on stern souls ?
Has dull gross matter made this pact with

force :
To build a toy called living, which shall be



INFANCY. n

Precious to hearts which can survey the

world

And bend their passions to the will of God ?
O monstrous learning, mining down to hell,
Rise to the light ere darkness quench thine

eye,

And let the sun be ever sun to thee,
Nor ask, self-buried 'neaththe ponderous rocks,
Whether indeed he be so fair and strong,
Or whether some deep-pent volcanic fire
Nourish the health of the bright fields above
Rather than he. What Hercules of thought
Can pile the godlike on material things,
And crown new Order of old protean Chaos
With praise for Mind from Matter well

evolved ?

We speak of incommensurable things
Unfeeling matter driven by nerveless force
As windmills by the wind, and lo ! a thing
Sentient, beloved, harping our soul's chords,
Subject to powers of higher ancestry
And ruling kingdoms of ethereal love ;
A motive power, the fixed human will,
To which all storms that vex the Arctic seas,
Or thundering falls of Californian alps,
Or centuries of sunshine through all space
Bear no proportion. Enough, mute angel,
May'st thou ne'er wander thus in troublous

thought,
But peace be with thee, 'spite an age of strife



12 INFANCY.

As in the downy crib, so calm through life.
So calm ! yet looking on thy deep repose
Like flower with petals closed unwittingly,
The murmur of the piping world not heard
Even in the echo of dream-music.
My wish returns to me, it cannot be
That in the clash and shock of mightier wars
Than ever nation against nation waged
All blessing can lie in tranquillity.
Earth is a battlefield for heaven and hell,
Heart against heart, the civil war of souls,
The fermentation which shall leave things

clear,
The long death-grapple wherein one must

fall,

Evil or good, this I must rather wish,
Since he who strives not is accounted dead,
And all who choose may fight as sons of God.
Weapons are given, and the time to strike.
Then, like a hero, fraught with Heaven's

command,

Thine eye firm-set on incorruptible ends,
With strength surmounting wave on wave of

woe,

With patient service and delivering wrath,
Perfect in love, unclaimed by Time or Death,
Thou shalt know victory where God is all.



YOUTH. 13



YOUTH.



LIFTING of hearts in the joy of the morning,
Bright hope and bravery, trusting and scorn-
ing,

Visions of beauty, delectable mountains,
Sparkling of dewdrops and fresh-springing

fountains ;

Eagles, the beat of whose vanes, as they soar
In the throb of the sunburst, spurns the low

shore,

Plumage of silver and broad wings resplen-
dent,

Circling and wheeling and motionless pendent,
Eyes, that undazzled, triumphantly gleaming,
Flash the proud presage of daring and

dreaming ;
Breaking of chains from the limbs of the

right,

Melting of wrong in the sea of God's light,
Tremblers made bold in the might of the free,
Realms of fair wisdom to every degree,
Every man prince of the nobles of thought



14 YOUTH.

Garnering harvests where prophets have

wrought ;

Kingly beneficence, large as man's story,
Calling new worlds to the kinship of glory ;
Clear-shining honour, glad-glittering for battle,
Lightnings whose thunders o'er nations loud

rattle ;
Passion for homes earned by slain warrior

sires,
Swift swords of truth dipt in martyrs pure

fires,

Charging and clashing of steel in the sun,
Grappling of axes till standards are won ;
Bearing o'er oceans the flag of reform,
Plowing alone through the heart of the

storm ;

Islands released from the grasp of the deep,
Continents thrilling and waking from sleep,
Voices and songs of humanity sounding,
Liberty, peace, and fraternity founding,
Anthems of labour, and servitude choral,
Poesy flashing in streamers auroral,
Touching the beacons from summit to summit,
Crossing great waters unsounded by plummet,
Firing the torch of a world-wide crusade,
Peoples in counsel for every man's aid,
Banners dyed new in the candour of Christ,
Lances of force in salvation baptised ;
Flowers and fruit of the garden of praise,
Rivers of melody, bowers of grace,



YOUTH. is

Sweet-breathing meadows o'erbrimming the

lake,

Choirs in the branches and song in the brake,,
Gentle enchantment and mellowing care,
Waving of wings as if angels were there,
Growing tranquillity, loveliness, rest,
Setting of sails for the land of the blest.

So softly dreaming of a heavenly world,
All life lay sensitive in conscious sleep,
Breathing deep wisdom of pure melody,
Celestial music pealing from the spheres
Eternal harmonies, which, as they move,
Give calm unto the soul, a sea of sound
Full-fraught with worship joining man to God.



II.

Behold ! behold ! it is no mortal power
Speeding like light for ever through the

spheres,
While this mere sun of days and time sinks

lower,

On human orbs the ray divine appears.
Long have we crept by shattered groves and

thrones,
Long have we hoped where cause for hope

had fled,

Oft have we mingled unavailing groans,
Deep have we searched among the famous dead ;



1 6 YOUTH.

Their time is past, the ages know their own ;
We cannot build upon the tombs of seers,
Words writ in sand we may not grave in stone,
Nor raise the corpses of forgotten fears.
All that our hearts need bear behold within !
The ghosts of centuries yet haunt our souls,
We view the heights of Truth and wilds of

Sin,

Ours the great Now which all to come controls.
Let us then rise with spirits full and free
And cast the crust of custom's mould away,
We are the ministers of worlds to be,
We are possessors of a waneless day.
For weal or woe, the truth must be our care,
Through depth and height, the truth must be

our cry,

FOT truth, all dangers we must gladly dare,
Live for her glory, and be proud to die.
Where is the faith more noble, strong,

supreme,

To lift our souls beyond the ills of Time,
Than that which, darksome though the pas-
sage seem,

Believes the Heart of Knowledge Good Sub-
lime ?

So may the tempest roar, the sun grow dark,
And trackless vapours hide our guiding star ;
As from a thundercloud the hymning lark,
Our dauntless voices shall be heard afar.
And as this planet and our sun of light,



YOUTH. 17

The dust of firmaments we know and see,
And all the vaster spheres beyond our sight
Revolve around the Central World to be,
So may our spirits, through the chasm of night,
Swayed by heaven's love be never prone to

fall,
Cheered by each small true beam of starry

light

Obey the influence of the God of All.
For shall the monarch of creation quail
At every step and crush his noblest power,
Shall Nature's fables o'er the soul prevail,
And Virtue weave herself a Hadian bower ?
Shall we, safe-havened from the jostling

world,
Where songs divine so chafed with common

noise,
Kneel the sad night out with our banner

furled,
And mock the Godhead with man-pleasing

toys ?
Wilt thou, poor bird, that beat'st the nether

air
And view'st with fear the conquests of this

age,
Yield thy frail freedom to some good man's

care
And coax warm comfort from thy narrow

cage?
If such thy lot, farewell and take thine ease,

2



1 8 YOUTH.

For glorious war is stirring in our hearts,
The war of worlds, the war of God for man,
The war of Love against the powers of Hate,
Darkness of soul and arsenals of night,
While these oppose, in this corporeal life,
Action is happiness, and peace unrest ;
And neither death nor principalities,
Nor schemers of the treason of the world,
Nor priests of the anathemas of hell,
Nor false interpreters of God's high will
Above the nations by their Mammon throned,
Nor whispering charms of pharisaic lips,
Warning the faithful to avert their eyes,
And banish Reason from hand-hallowed heads,
Nor all the anti-christs with Christian lips,
Nor planished heathendom with church and

creed,

Nor blinding peaks of philosophic ice,
Nor depth, nor height, nor might, nor multi-
tude,

Shall ever sunder us from love of truth,
Or ever make us doubt the truth of love.



in.

Praise be to God for His first glorious gift
Of life, and living a true life to Him,
Born to the freedom of the heirs of heaven,
As earth, yet spirit, mortal, without death,
Joyful in strength and glad in the pure beams



YOUTH. 19

Long time invisible to keener sight

That stretch a pathway for the soul's long

flight

Across all ages through the star-sown deep,
When her set work on earth's green fields is

done,

And willing labour yields to willing sleep.
O rapturous contest with the stubborn world !
O happy vision of victorious strife !
Beneath the arching blue of God's bright sky
No heart shall faint, no comrade sheath his

sword,

For if the Lord of Hosts be on our side
Surely a mighty task with might is done,
Strong walls smoke up in powder at the Voice
The sounding of the angel's trumpet call,
The glad heroic blast of conquering faith
Proclaiming peace in every groaning land,
Truth-seeking freedom and divinest love,
The great religion melting sect and creed,
The new-won heritage of unity,
The will of God on earth as done in heaven.

Fall, fall, ye forts where blighting envy
broods

And hollow pride, and timorous Folly's
crew,

Hushing high thought, and jingling keys to
heaven,

Bear record and dissolve in burning words,

Bear record and be witnesses for ever ;



20 YOUTH.

Within each heart our Father's kingdom is !
Then may fair humbleness with contrite

feet

Do justice and love mercy day by day,
And murmur not, but ever watch and pray
That we may know and knowing keep the

way.

So all day long a melody goes forth
From hearts responsive to ethereal tones
Straight-lighted from their everlasting home,
Where songs more lovely than poor strings

and wind

Can dare to emulate on this low world
Resound unfading multitudinous praise
With deathless music, of which some pale

notes
Come to the straining heart not through the

ear,
And fill the unclosed expanse from sphere

to sphere.



IV.

How can I tell with struggling tale, O Love,
Launched far beyond the shores of time and

space

In flight beyond the empyrean blue,
A mind that hath no utterance of words
Or cognisance of creeping sentences ;
The Universe of Life could not proclaim,



YOUTH. 21

Though every being in one chorus joined
And not one letter of their story strayed,
Nor can all eloquence of human kind
Translate a sentence of the heart of song
That lives its own life in the great Unseen.
The sad world breaks her gloom with words of

light,

Surely she blossometh in new-found joy,
Winter is dying from the hearts of men,
Nature confessing putteth off her sins,
And blesseth heaven with divine discourse ;
God's world, ourselves, made pure and void

of fear,

Full of repentance which cannot repent,
Grow perfect in the rapture of release :
An air of music borne on pinions bright
Breathes heaven through me, and my whole

soul melts

In floods of glory compassing all space ;
I am at one with every star that shines,
And grain of sand and drop of diamond dew ;
Streams are for tears of joy and hills for

smiles,

And earth's fair tapestry my silent speech,
The perfect concord of a thousand thoughts
Uncalled, unlaboured, rendering sweet praise
So various, and so full of high intent
And love and grace beholding life indeed,
That nothing can endure in such pure light
But only good and everlasting right.



22 YOUTH.

Yet were this poor earth painless we should

fall

Into the windless peril of still seas,
Placid bright waters of forgetfulness,
Because the might of care which could not

suffer

Some deep apocalypse of pain and proof
Would range for sacrifice beyond the grave,
To find eternity, or droop in dreams.
But thou hast made my woful life complete,
And thou hast armed me for a thousand

toils,
And thou hast sealed my fitful doubting

soul,
And thou hast come to crown my nobler

hours,

And hidden honour finds full joy in thee,
And all the ends of action meet in thee,
And thou hast saved me from the elements
That beat about the dim coasts of the

known,

Not earthly, and hast taught me to behold
The grace of God that passeth every art,
The Reason that for ever moves in love.
Love hath no limits laid in time and space,
Nor corporal bands, nor fear of earth's vast

woes,

Her home is with the universal light,
Joy lifts her wings and cleaves her crystal

way,



YOUTH. 23

And every breath against her feeds her

flight ;
Nought is too small for her and nought too

great

For boundless pity and immense delight ;
Heaven flows through all and common

grows divine,
Rays not for time through menial moments

shine,

Strong for all fates, to death itself supreme,
Life makes her but a visit and departs a

dream.



24 A MA Y MORNING,



A MAY MORNING.

O WHO that has plunged in the crystal stream
When the sun's in the gate of the golden East,
Who feels the light airs around him play
With quickening breath while the beams of

day

Encrimson the court of the clouds that wait,
And dewy leaves shake their sparkling

freight,

And the hosts of the living to gladness wake,
And the lark his carol of praise doth make,
And the mavis pours forth his roundelay,
And the gentle doves murmur the tale of

May,
And the fresh flowers lift their bent-down

eyes

To look up in love on the blue, blue skies,
When the world seems born for eternal youth
And to sing of joy and mercy and truth,
When the moaning of sadness has trembled to

rest,

And the great sea heaves with a tender breast,
And colours break forth in rainbow tints
From the gossamered meadows and hardest

flints,



A MA Y MORNING. 25

All drinking, scattering, telling of light
Which cometh from heaven, for heaven is

bright ;

O who can despair, in so sweet an air,
And doubt that the image of truth is fair ?



26 VISION OF THE WORLD'S PROGRESS.



A VISION OF THE WORLD'S
PROGRESS.

I SAW the nations marching on,
Marching to the bounds of time,

They were one in heart and purpose,
Mighty in their golden prime.

Lo ! the world's long wilful childhood,
Yielding to maturer thought,

One united federation,

Truth and endless wisdom sought.

Nobly shone this Christian army,
Full of strength and void of doubt,

Voices of all lands in union

Raised the same triumphant shout.

Dangers fell as if by magic
At the stroke of faith so great,

Rivers parted, mountains vanished,
Hurtful creatures met their fate.

Countless banners of the legions
Waved them onward in their course,

Each man bore his crest peculiar,
And, above, the Holy Cross.



VISION OF THE WORLDS PROGRESS. 27

Mild and gentle was their bearing,

For no earthly foe was near,
Watchful, clad in heavenly armour,

Thus they had no fiend to fear.

It was morning when I saw them,

As they marched they sang this song ;

It was evening when I saw them,

As they inarched they sang this song :

Forward for truth, forward for knowledge.

Forward for mercy and love ;
O Thou whom we daily acknowledge,

Lighten our ways from above !
Keep us Thine own, our senses are weak,

Lift them from earthly deceit,
Quicken slow hearts Thy kingdom to seek,.

Strengthen the zeal of our feet !
Forward for truth, forward for knowledge,

Forward in mercy and love ;
O Thou whom we daily acknowledge,

Glory ! descend from above.



28 RENENS-SUR-ROCHE.



RENENS-SUR-ROCHE.

PERCHED on thy rocky nest,

Leafy retreat,
Be thou the traveller's rest,

Welcome and sweet.
When from the busy din,

Dusty and worn,
He thy fair heights doth win,

Care lags forlorn.
Ne'er let her climb that steep,

Drop her at last ;
There let her weep and sleep,

Witch of the past.
Once on that happy hill

Every man's free ;
Fixed by no narrow will

Fool's fashions flee.
Here the great mountains preach

Joy in repose,
Field, lake, and forest teach

More than our prose.

1871.



BREAK OF DA Y. 29



BREAK OF DAY.

A SKYLARK'S TRIM..

UPSPRIXGING silently, outringing fervently,
Shaking the dew of the dark from my wings,
Up to the glowing sky, up to the heavens

high,
World-filling fountain of fathomless light !

Praise for the dawning gray, praise for the

morning ray,

Praise for the fill of content in my breast,
Air of the firmament speckless in purity,
Crystal ethereal ocean of light !

Beams of the crimson East, touch with your

fire the least,

Make me a worshipper filled with your might ;
Sun ! make one meeting thee raptured in

greeting thee,
Angel impassioned of starry delight !



30 BREAK OF DA Y.

Poising invisible, free in sublimity,
Din of toil drowned in a carol of joy,
Shadow turned shining, for love hath in-
spirited,

Faith through her winter wrought sorrow to
song !

Over the kindly earth, over the waving trees,
Over the groves and the harbours of rest,
Flowers unnumbered outbidding my trustful-
ness,
Sweetness and beauty enshrining my nest !

Freshness of forest and bloom of the wilder-
ness,

Rippling of rivers and smiles of the sea,

Flock-dappled hillocks and dells of forgetful-
ness,

Boons brimming over the heart of the free !

Keen through the fanning wind soaring

hilariously,

Swift will I rally and mount to the blue,
Down for a moment to sally tumultuously,
Braving with paeans the welkin anew !

Dome of broad ecstasy, holy immensity,
Measureless, measureless, bounty of light,
Flame-hidden potency, primal intensity !
Sphering with music the gladness of flight !



BREAK OF DAY. 31

Join with me, join with me, spirits illuminate,
Praise with me, praise with me, wingless and

wise,

Blithe be your melody's yearning felicity,
Fill your deep vision from infinite skies !

Quitting the virid earth, kindle in vivid mirth,
Glitter aloft a wild torrent of glee,
Burst from infirmity, plunge in eternity,
Lowly and gentle alight on the lea !



AD ALMAM.



AD ALMAM.

THINE eyes are like the arch above,
A depth of clearness, heavenly light ;

A depth which as we wonder grows
More darkly blue, serenely bright.

Thy blush is like the softest cloud
Set glowing in the pearly west,

Sure token of a sunny heart,
That beats to make our being blest.

Thy steadfast mien of high intent
Ennobles looks that meet thy face,

And lives unconsciously are blent

With something of thy winsome grace.



ON AN OLD TOMBSTONE. 33



ON AN OLD TOMBSTONE.

THROUGH the dark gateway into life and light
The body fallen, the spirit pure and free,
Pains raised in joy and wrongs of earth made

right,

And faith that wept made perfectly to see.
O may Thy children who still struggle here
Rejoice in God and live for Him alone,
Work be our prayer, and love bereft of fear,
Our truest worship His will known and done.



34 UBI DIES?



UBI DIES?

THE light is gone, but not from heaven r
Though night close on our eyes,

The beams of day to earth once given
Still travel through the skies.

Our life is dark, the soul's hid sun
Shall wake our song no more ;

Have other worlds the message won
Which gladdened this wild shore ?



ALETHEIA. 35



ALETHEIA.

THY smile illuminates the day,
My weight of care thy voice doth ease,
Thy tender help doth smoothe my way,
And all thy words and counsels please.

Thou art to me a better heart,
Clouds clear and show me sky above,
New powers into being start
Beneath the blessing of thy love.