Daddy's in de cane-brake wid his little My heart's in that garden, that little Dutch dog and gun, Sleep, Kentucky Babe! garden, It tumbled right in as I passed, 'Possum fo' yo' breakfast when yo' sleepin' Mid wildering mazes of spinach and daisies, time is done, Sleep, Kentucky Babe! And Gretchen is holding it fast. HATTIE WHITNEY V "A SONG THAT OLD WAS SUNG" THE OLD SEXTON NIGH to a grave that was newly made, Leaned a sexton old on his earth-worn spade; His work was done, and he paused to wait And his locks were white as the foamy sea; And these words came from his lips so thin: "I gather them in: I gather them in. "I gather them in! for man and boy, "Many are with me, but still I'm alone, I'm king of the dead-and I make my throne On a monument slab of marble cold; And my sceptre of rule is the spade I hold: Come they from cottage or come they from hall, Mankind are my subjects, all, all, all ! Let them loiter in pleasure or toilfully spin I gather them in, I gather them in. "I gather them in, and their final rest Is here, down here, in the earth's dark breast!" And the sexton ceased, for the funeral train Wound mutely o'er that solemn plain ! "I gather them in, I gather them in.” PARK BENJAMIN 1 HE CAME TOO LATE He came too late!-Neglect had tried She scorned the offering of a heart He came too late! At once he felt He came too late!-The subtle chords But by the slights that wound. 1 See BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, p. 779. See BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, p. 780. ELIZABETH BOGART THE SUCCESSION As one by one the singers of our land, Sadly we watch them from the desolate strand, It is a fire perpetual, which has caught Who, by no price of gain or glory bought, FRANCES LAUGHTON MACE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY (TYPICAL POETS AND POETRY OF THE FINAL YEARS) say. And if you'll write a poem, there's no way But first to think it clearly; pin your mind Upon your thought; fasten it there, and bind The thought into your heart: when your veins burn and flow With love or hate, the thoughts to music go, Beyond your conscious power! For rhymes, they're right Or wrong according as they hear, not look When printed by a printer in a book! And their "correctness" may be measured best, And indeed only, by a certain test: And, masters that they were, rhymed 'falsely," so As now no poetaster dares to do! PURPOSE So then, at last, let me awake this sleep Oh, I would have you look With judgment on your life, and not to brook The less in art, as not in truth; forgive Much in you now I can, never that you less live! |