Standard Selections Part 25

Here where of old, by Thy design, The fathers spake that word of Thine Whose echo is the glad refrain Of rended bolt and falling chain, To grace our festal time, from all The zones of earth, our guests we call.

Be with us while the New World greets The Old World thronging all its streets Unveiling all the triumphs won By art or toil beneath the sun; And unto common good ordain This rivals.h.i.+p of hand and brain.

Thou, who hast here in concord furled The war flags of a gathered world, Beneath the Western skies fulfill The Orient's mission of good-will, And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece, Send back its Argonauts of peace.

For art and labor met in truce, For beauty made the bride of use, We thank Thee; but, withal, we crave The austere virtues strong to save, The honor proof to place or gold, The manhood never bought nor sold!

Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong; Around our gift of freedom draw The safeguards of Thy righteous law; And, cast in some diviner mold, Let the new cycle shame the old!

FOOTNOTE:

[21] By permission of, and special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., authorized publishers of this author's works.

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS[22]

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

This is the s.h.i.+p of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main,-- The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings, In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the s.h.i.+p of pearl!

And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing sh.e.l.l, Before thee lies revealed,-- Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his l.u.s.trous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its s.h.i.+ning archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!

While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, n.o.bler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown sh.e.l.l by life's unresting sea!

FOOTNOTE:

[22] Used by permission of, and special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., authorized publishers of this author's works.

CROSSING THE BAR

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

Sunset and evening star And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell And after that the dark; And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark;

For though from out our bourne of time and place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

LORD BYRON

The a.s.syrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen; Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath flown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he pa.s.sed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail; And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And their idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

EACH AND ALL[23]

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown, On thee, from the hill top looking down; And the heifer that lows on the upland farm, Far heard, lows not thine ear to charm; The s.e.xton, tolling the bell at noon, Dreams not that great Napoleon Stops his horse and lists with delight, As his files sweep round yon distant height; Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed hath lent; All are needed by each one-- Nothing is fair or good alone.

I caught the linnet's note from heaven, Singing at dawn, on the alder bough; I brought him home in his nest at even: He sings the song; but it pleases not now; For I did not bring home the river and sky; He sang to my ear--they sing to my eye.

The delicate sh.e.l.l lay on the sh.o.r.e; The bubbles of the latest wave Fresh pearls to their emerald gave; And the bellowing of the savage sea Greeted their safe escape to me.

I wiped away the weeds and foam, And fetched my sea-born treasures home; But the poor, unsightly, noisome things Had left their beauty on the sh.o.r.e, With the sun, and the sand, and the wild uproar Nor rose, nor stream, nor bird is fair; Their concord is beyond compare.

FOOTNOTE:

[23] Used by permission of, and special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized publishers.