Poems of James Russell Lowell Part 19

III.

Among the toil-worn poor my soul is seeking For one to bring the Maker's name to light, To be the voice of that almighty speaking Which every age demands to do it right.

Proprieties our silken bards environ; He who would be the tongue of this wide land Must string his harp with chords of st.u.r.dy iron And strike it with a toil-embrowned hand; One who hath dwelt with Nature well-attended, Who hath learnt wisdom from her mystic books, Whose soul with all her countless lives hath blended, So that all beauty awes us in his looks; Who not with body's waste his soul hath pampered, Who as the clear northwestern wind is free, Who walks with Form's observances unhampered, And follows the One Will obediently; Whose eyes, like windows on a breezy summit, Control a lovely prospect every way; Who doth not sound G.o.d's sea with earthly plummet, And find a bottom still of worthless clay; Who heeds not how the lower gusts are working, Knowing that one sure wind blows on above, And sees, beneath the foulest faces lurking, One G.o.d-built shrine of reverence and love; Who sees all stars that wheel their shining marches Around the centre fixed of Destiny, Where the encircling soul serene o'erarches The moving globe of being like a sky; Who feels that G.o.d and Heaven's great deeps are nearer Him to whose heart his fellow-man is nigh, Who doth not hold his soul's own freedom dearer Than that of all his brethren, low or high; Who to the Right can feel himself the truer For being gently patient with the wrong, Who sees a brother in the evil-doer, And finds in Love the heart's-blood of his song;-- This, this is he for whom the world is waiting To sing the beatings of its mighty heart, Too long hath it been patient with the grating Of scrannel-pipes, and heard it misnamed Art.

To him the smiling soul of man shall listen, Laying awhile its crown of thorns aside, And once again in every eye shall glisten The glory of a nature satisfied.

His verse shall have a great, commanding motion, Heaving and swelling with a melody Learnt of the sky, the river, and the ocean, And all the pure, majestic things that be.

Awake, then, thou! we pine for thy great presence To make us feel the soul once more sublime, We are of far too infinite an essence To rest contented with the lies of Time.

Speak out! and, lo! a hush of deepest wonder Shall sink o'er all this many-voiced scene, As when a sudden burst of rattling thunder Shatters the blueness of a sky serene.

1841.

THE FATHERLAND.

Where is the true man's fatherland?

Is it where he by chance is born?

Doth not the yearning spirit scorn In such scant borders to be spanned?

O, yes! his fatherland must be As the blue heaven wide and free!

Is it alone where freedom is, Where G.o.d is G.o.d and man is man?

Doth he not claim a broader span For the soul's love of home than this?

O, yes! his fatherland must be As the blue heaven wide and free!

Where'er a human heart doth wear Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrow's gyves, Where'er a human spirit strives After a life more true and fair, There is the true man's birthplace grand, His is a world-wide fatherland!

Where'er a single slave doth pine, Where'er one man may help another,-- Thank G.o.d for such a birthright, brother,-- That spot of earth is thine and mine!

There is the true man's birthplace grand, His is a world-wide fatherland!

THE FORLORN.

The night is dark, the stinging sleet, Swept by the bitter gusts of air, Drives whistling down the lonely street, And stiffens on the pavement bare.

The street-lamps flare and struggle dim Through the white sleet-clouds as they pa.s.s, Or, governed by a boisterous whim, Drop down and rattle on the gla.s.s.

One poor, heart-broken, outcast girl Faces the east-wind's searching flaws, And, as about her heart they whirl, Her tattered cloak more tightly draws.

The flat brick walls look cold and bleak, Her bare feet to the sidewalk freeze; Yet dares she not a shelter seek, Though faint with hunger and disease.

The sharp storm cuts her forehead bare, And, piercing through her garments thin, Beats on her shrunken breast, and there Makes colder the cold heart within.

She lingers where a ruddy glow Streams outward through an open shutter, Adding more bitterness to woe, More loneness to desertion utter.

One half the cold she had not felt, Until she saw this gush of light Spread warmly forth, and seem to melt Its slow way through the deadening night.

She hears a woman's voice within, Singing sweet words her childhood knew, And years of misery and sin Furl off, and leave her heaven blue.

Her freezing heart, like one who sinks Outwearied in the drifting snow, Drowses to deadly sleep and thinks No longer of its hopeless woe:

Old fields, and clear blue summer days, Old meadows, green with gra.s.s and trees That shimmer through the trembling haze And whiten in the western breeze,--

Old faces,--all the friendly past Rises within her heart again, And sunshine from her childhood cast Makes summer of the icy rain.

Enhaloed by a mild, warm glow, From all humanity apart, She hears old footsteps wandering slow Through the lone chambers of her heart.

Outside the porch before the door, Her cheek upon the cold, hard stone, She lies, no longer foul and poor, No longer dreary and alone.

Next morning something heavily Against the opening door did weigh, And there, from sin and sorrow free, A woman on the threshold lay.

A smile upon the wan lips told That she had found a calm release, And that, from out the want and cold, The song had borne her soul in peace.

For, whom the heart of man shuts out, Sometimes the heart of G.o.d takes in, And fences them all round about With silence mid the world's loud din;

And one of his great charities Is Music, and it doth not scorn To close the lids upon the eyes Of the polluted and forlorn;

Far was she from her childhood's home, Farther in guilt had wandered thence, Yet thither it had bid her come To die in maiden innocence.

1842.

MIDNIGHT.

The moon shines white and silent On the mist, which, like a tide Of some enchanted ocean, O'er the wide marsh doth glide, Spreading its ghost-like billows Silently far and wide.

A vague and starry magic Makes all things mysteries, And lures the earth's dumb spirit Up to the longing skies,-- I seem to hear dim whispers, And tremulous replies.

The fireflies o'er the meadow In pulses come and go; The elm-trees' heavy shadow Weighs on the gra.s.s below; And faintly from the distance The dreaming c.o.c.k doth crow.

All things look strange and mystic, The very bushes swell And take wild shapes and motions, As if beneath a spell,-- They seem not the same lilacs From childhood known so well.

The snow of deepest silence O'er everything doth fall, So beautiful and quiet, And yet so like a pall,-- As if all life were ended, And rest were come to all.

O wild and wondrous midnight, There is a might in thee To make the charmed body Almost like spirit be, And give it some faint glimpses Of immortality!

1842.