A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems Part 3

For, when such light is in the world, we share, All of us, all the rays thereof that s.h.i.+ne: Its presence is alive in the unseen air, Its fire within our veins as quickening wine; A spirit is shed on all men everywhere, Known or not known of all men for divine.

Yea, as the sun makes heaven, that light makes fair All souls of ours, all lesser souls than thine, Priest, prophet, seer and sage, Lord of a subject age That bears thy seal upon it for a sign; Whose name shall be thy name, Whose light thy light of fame, The light of love that makes thy soul a shrine; Whose record through all years to be Shall bear this witness written--that its womb bare thee.

XXIV.

O mystery, whence to one man's hand was given Power upon all things of the spirit, and might Whereby the veil of all the years was riven And naked stood the secret soul of night!

O marvel, hailed of eyes whence cloud is driven, That shows at last wrong reconciled with right By death divine of evil and sin forgiven!

O light of song, whose fire is perfect light!

No speech, no voice, no thought, No love, avails us aught For service of thanksgiving in his sight Who hath given us all for ever Such gifts that man gave never So many and great since first Time's wings took flight.

Man may not praise a spirit above Man's: life and death shall praise him: we can only love.

XXV.

Life, everlasting while the worlds endure, Death, self-abased before a power more high, Shall bear one witness, and their word stand sure, That not till time be dead shall this man die Love, like a bird, comes loyal to his lure; Fame flies before him, wingless else to fly.

A child's heart toward his kind is not more pure, An eagle's toward the sun no lordlier eye.

Awe sweet as love and proud As fame, though hushed and bowed, Yearns toward him silent as his face goes by: All crowns before his crown Triumphantly bow down, For pride that one more great than all draws nigh: All souls applaud, all hearts acclaim, One heart benign, one soul supreme, one conquering name.

NOTES

ST. V.

V. 3. La Legende des Siecles: Le Sacre de la Femme.

4. La Conscience.

7. Booz endormi.

8. Premiere rencontre du Christ avec le tombeau.

9. La Terre: Hymne.

VI. 3. Les Temps Paniques.

9. La Ville Disparue.

VII. Les Trois Cents.

VIII. 1. Le Detroit de l'Euripe: La Chanson de Sophocle a Salamine.

7. Le Romancero du Cid.

IX. 3. Le Pet.i.t Roi de Galice.

5. Le Jour des Rois.

9. Montfaucon.

X. La vision d'ou est sorti ce livre.

XI. 9. L'an neuf de l'Hegire.

12. Les sept merveilles du monde.

XII. 1. Les quatre jours d'Elciis.

4. Le Regiment du baron Madruce.

7. La Chanson des Aventuriers de la Mer.

9. Les Reitres.

12. La Rose de l'Infante.

XIII. 1. Le Satyre.

12. Les paysans au bord de la mer.

XIV. 1. Les pauvres gens.

5. Pet.i.t Paul.

7. Guerre Civile.

9. La Vision de Dante.

15. La Trompette du Jugement.

XV. Torquemada (1882).

XVI. La Legende des Siecles: tome cinquieme et dernier (1883).

XVII. November 25, 1883.

_LINES ON THE MONUMENT OF GIUSEPPE MAZZINI._

Italia, mother of the souls of men, Mother divine, Of all that served thee best with sword or pen, All sons of thine,

Thou knowest that here the likeness of the best Before thee stands, The head most high, the heart found faithfullest, The purest hands.

Above the fume and foam of time that flits, The soul, we know, Now sits on high where Alighieri sits With Angelo.

Not his own heavenly tongue hath heavenly speech Enough to say What this man was, whose praise no thought may reach, No words can weigh.

Since man's first mother brought to mortal birth Her first-born son, Such grace befell not ever man on earth As crowns this one.

Of G.o.d nor man was ever this thing said, That he could give Life back to her who gave him, whence his dead Mother might live.

But this man found his mother dead and slain, With fast sealed eyes, And bade the dead rise up and live again, And she did rise.

And all the world was bright with her through him: But dark with strife, Like heaven's own sun that storming clouds bedim, Was all his life.

Life and the clouds are vanished: hate and fear Have had their span Of time to hunt, and are not: he is here, The sunlike man.

City superb that hadst Columbus first For sovereign son, Be prouder that thy breast hath later nurst This mightier one.

Glory be his for ever, while his land Lives and is free, As with controlling breath and sovereign hand He bade her be.

Earth shows to heaven the names by thousands told That crown her fame, But highest of all that heaven and earth behold Mazzini's name.

_LES CASQUETS._

From the depths of the waters that lighten and darken With change everlasting of life and of death, Where hardly by noon if the lulled ear hearken It hears the sea's as a tired child's breath, Where hardly by night if an eye dare scan it The storm lets s.h.i.+pwreck be seen or heard, As the reefs to the waves and the foam to the granite Respond one merciless word,

Sheer seen and far, in the sea's live heaven, A seamew's flight from the wild sweet land, White-plumed with foam if the wind wake, seven Black helms as of warriors that stir not stand.

From the depths that abide and the waves that environ Seven rocks rear heads that the midnight masks, And the strokes of the swords of the storm are as iron On the steel of the wave-worn casques.