Anthology of Massachusetts Poets Part 5

There is only the gra.s.s to fight!

HILDA CONKLING

RED ROOSTER

RED ROOSTER in your gray coop, O stately creature with tail-feathers red and blue, Yellow and black, You have a comb gay as a parade On your head: You have pearl trinkets On your feet: The short feathers smooth along your back Are the dark color of wet rocks, Or the rippled green of ships When I look at their sides through water.

I don't know how you happened to be made So proud, so foolish, Wearing your coat of many colors, Shouting all day long your crooked words, Loud... sharp... not beautiful!

HILDA CONKLING

VELVETS (BY A BED OF PANSIES)

THIS pansy has a thinking face Like the yellow moon.

This one has a face with white blots; I call him the clown.

Here goes one down the gra.s.s With a pretty look of plumpness; She is a little girl going to school With her hands in the pockets of her pinafore.

Her name is Sue.

I like this one, in a bonnet, Waiting, Her eyes are so deep!

But these on the other side, These that wear purple and blue, They are the Velvets, The king with his cloak, The queen with her gown, The prince with his feather.

These are dark and quiet And stay alone.

I know you, Velvets, Color of Dark, Like the pine-tree on the hill When stars shine!

HILDA CONKLING

THE MOODS

THE Moods have laid their hands across my hair: The Moods have drawn their fingers through my heart; My hair shall never more lie smooth and bright, But stir like tide-worn sea-weed, and my heart Shall never more be glad of small sweet things,-- A wild rose, or a crescent moon,-a book Of little verses, or a dancing child.

My heart turns crying from the rose and book, My heart turns crying from the thin bright moon, And weeps with useless sorrow for the child.

The Moods have loosed a wind to vex my hair, And made my heart too wise, that was a child.

Now I shall blow like smitten candle-flame: I shall desire all things that may not be: The years, the stars, the souls of ancient men, All tears that must, and smiles that may not be,-- Yes, glimmering lights across a windy ford, And vagrant voices on a darkened plain, And holy things, and outcast things, and things, Far too remote, frail-bodied to be plain.

My pity and my joy are grown alike.

I cannot sweep the strangeness from my heart.

The Moods have laid swift hands across my hair: The Moods have drawn swift fingers through my heart.

FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS

HILL-FANTASY

SITTETH by the red cairn a brown One, a hoofed One, High upon the mountain, where the gra.s.ses fail.

Where the ash-trees flourish far their blazing bunches to the sun, A brown One, a hoofed One, pipes against the gale.

Up scrambled I then, furry fingers helping me.

I was on the mountain, wandering, wandering; No one but the pine trees and the white birch knew.

Over rocks I scrambled, looked up and saw that Strange Thing, Peaked ears and sharp horns, p.r.i.c.ked against the blue.

Oh, and, how he piped there! piped upon the high reeds Till the blue air crackled like a frost-film on a pool!

Oh, and how he spread himself, like a child whom no one heeds, Tumbled chuckling in the brook, all sleek and kind and cool!

He had berries 'twixt his horns, crimson-red as cochineal., Bobbing, wagging wantonly they tickled him, and oh, How his deft lips puckered round the reed, seemed to chase and steal Sky-music, earth-music, tree-music low!

I said "Good-day, Thou!" He said, "Good-day, Thou!"

Wiped his reed against the spotted doe-skin on his back, He said, "Come up here, and I will teach thee piping now.

While the earth is singing so, for tunes we shall not lack."

Up scrambled I then, furry fingers helping me.

Up scrambled I. So we sat beside the cairn.

Broad into my face laughed that horned Thing so naughtily.

Oh, it was a rascal of a woodland Satyr's bairn!

'So blow, and so, Thou! Move thy fingers faster, look!

Move them like the little leaves and whirling midges. So!

Soon 'twill twist like tendrils and out-twinkle like the lost brook.

Move thy fingers merrily, and blow! Blow! Blow!"

Brown One! Hoofed One! Beat time to keep me straight.

Kick it on the red stone, whistle in my ear.

Brush thy crimson berries in my face, then hold thy breath, for--wait!

Joy comes bubbling to me lips. I pipe, oh, hear!

Blue sky, art glad of us? Green wood, art glad of us?

Old hard-heart mountain, dost thou hear me, how I blow?

Far away the sea-isles swim in sun-haze luminous.

Each one has a color like the seven-splendor bow.

Wind, wind, wind, dost thou mind me how I pipe, Now?

Chipmunk chatt'ring in the beech, rabbit in the brake?

Furry arm around my neck: "Oh, Thou art a brave one, Thou!"

Satyr, little satyr-friend, my heart with joy doth ache!

Sky-music, earth-music, tree-music tremulous, Water over steaming rocks, water in the shade, Storm-tune and sun-tune, how they flock up unto us, Sitting by the red cairn, gay and unafraid!

Brown One, Hoofed One, give me nimble hoofs, Thou!

Give me furry fingers and a secret furry tail!

Pleasant are thy smooth horns: if their like were on my brow Might I not abide here, till the strong sun fail?

Oh, the sorry brown eyes! Oh, the soft kind hand-touch, Sudden brush of velvet ears across my wind-cool cheek!

"Play-mate, Pipe-mate, thou askest one good boon too much.

I could never find thee horns, though day-long I seek.

"Yet, keep the pipe, Thou: I will cut another one.

Keep the pipe and play on it for all the world to hear.

Ah, but it was good once to sit together in the sun!

Though I have but half a soul, it finds thee very dear!