The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems Part 4

On Adams street and Jefferson-- Flames coming up from the ground!

On Jackson street and Was.h.i.+ngton-- Flames coming up from the ground!

And why, until the dawning sun Are flames coming up from the ground?

Because, through drowsy Springfield sped This red-skin queen, with feathered head, With winds and stars, that pay her court And leaping beasts, that make her sport; Because, gray Europe's rags august She tramples in the dust; Because we are her fields of corn; Because our fires are all reborn From her bosom's deathless embers, Flaming As she remembers The springtime And Virginia, Our Mother, Pocahontas.

III

We here renounce our Saxon blood.

Tomorrow's hopes, an April flood Come roaring in. The newest race Is born of her resilient grace.

We here renounce our Teuton pride: Our Norse and Slavic boasts have died: Italian dreams are swept away, And Celtic feuds are lost today....

She sings of lilacs, maples, wheat, Her own soil sings beneath her feet, Of springtime And Virginia, Our Mother, Pocahontas.

Concerning Emperors

I. G.o.d Send the Regicide

Would that the lying rulers of the world Were brought to block for tyrannies abhorred.

Would that the sword of Cromwell and the Lord, The sword of Joshua and Gideon, Hewed hip and thigh the hosts of Midian.

G.o.d send that ironside ere tomorrow's sun; Let Gabriel and Michael with him ride.

G.o.d send the Regicide.

II. A Colloquial Reply: To Any Newsboy

If you lay for Iago at the stage door with a brick You have missed the moral of the play.

He will have a midnight supper with Oth.e.l.lo and his wife.

They will chirp together and be gay.

But the things Iago stands for must go down into the dust: Lying and suspicion and conspiracy and l.u.s.t.

And I cannot hate the Kaiser (I hope you understand.) Yet I chase the thing he stands for with a brickbat in my hand.

Niagara

I

Within the town of Buffalo Are prosy men with leaden eyes.

Like ants they worry to and fro, (Important men, in Buffalo.) But only twenty miles away A deathless glory is at play: Niagara, Niagara.

The women buy their lace and cry:-- "O such a delicate design,"

And over ostrich feathers sigh, By counters there, in Buffalo.

The children haunt the trinket shops, They buy false-faces, bells, and tops, Forgetting great Niagara.

Within the town of Buffalo Are stores with garnets, sapphires, pearls, Rubies, emeralds aglow,-- Opal chains in Buffalo, Cherished symbols of success.

They value not your rainbow dress:-- Niagara, Niagara.

The s.h.a.ggy meaning of her name This Buffalo, this recreant town, Sharps and lawyers prune and tame: Few pioneers in Buffalo; Except young lovers flushed and fleet And winds hallooing down the street: "Niagara, Niagara."

The journalists are sick of ink: Boy prodigals are lost in wine, By night where white and red lights blink, The eyes of Death, in Buffalo.

And only twenty miles away Are starlit rocks and healing spray:-- Niagara, Niagara.

Above the town a tiny bird, A s.h.i.+ning speck at sleepy dawn, Forgets the ant-hill so absurd, This self-important Buffalo.

Descending twenty miles away He bathes his wings at break of day-- Niagara, Niagara.

II

What marching men of Buffalo Flood the streets in rash crusade?

Fools-to-free-the-world, they go, Primeval hearts from Buffalo.

Red cataracts of France today Awake, three thousand miles away An echo of Niagara, The cataract Niagara.

Mark Twain and Joan of Arc

When Yankee soldiers reach the barricade Then Joan of Arc gives each the accolade.

For she is there in armor clad, today, All the young poets of the wide world say.

Which of our freemen did she greet the first, Seeing him come against the fires accurst?

Mark Twain, our Chief, with neither smile nor jest, Leading to war our youngest and our best.

The Yankee to King Arthur's court returns.

The sacred flag of Joan above him burns.

For she has called his soul from out the tomb.

And where she stands, there he will stand till doom.

But I, I can but mourn, and mourn again At bloodshed caused by angels, saints, and men.

The Bankrupt Peace Maker