Part 1

Anthology of Massachusetts Poets

by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE

Contents

HOME BOUND—JOSEPH AUSLANDER AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL—KATHERINE LEE BATES YELLOW CLOVER—KATHERINE LEE BATES THE RETURNING—SYLVESTER BAXTER TWO MOODS FROM THE HILL—ERNEST BENSHIMOL A BANQUET—ERNEST BENSHIMOL SONG—GEORGE CABOT LODGE THE WORLDS—MARTHA GILBERT DICKINSON BIANCHI THE RIOT—GAMALIEL BRADFORD HUNGER—GAMALIEL BRADFORD EXIT GOD—GAMALIEL BRADFORD ROUSSEAU—GAMALIEL BRADFORD JOHN MASEFIELD—AMY BRIDGMAN 1620-1920—LE BARON RUSSEL BRIGGS THE CROSS-CURRENT—ABBIE FARWELL BROWN CANDLEMAS—ALICE BROWN SUNRISE ON MANSFIELD MOUNTAIN—ALICE BROWN BURNT ARE THE PETALS OF LIFE—ELSIE PUMPELLY CABOT FOUR FOUNTAINS. AFTER RESPIGHI—JESSICA CARR IN THE TROLLEY CAR—RUTH BALDWIN CHENERY IN IRISH RAIN—MARTHA HASKELL CLARK CRETONNE TROPICS—GRACE HAZARD CONKLING TO HILDA OF HER ROSES—GRACE HAZARD CONKLING DANDELION—HILDA CONKLING RED ROOSTER—HILDA CONKLING VELVETS—HILDA CONKLING THE MOODS—FANNY STEARNS DAVIS HILL-FANTASY—FANNY STEARNS DAVIS THE MIRAGE—NATHAN HASKELL DOLE THE ROAD BEYOND THE TOWN—MICHAEL EARLS, S.J. THE LILAC—WALTER PRICHARD EATON GOD, THROUGH HIS OFFSPRING NATURE, GAVE ME LOVE—CHARLES GIBSON TO MUSIC—MAUDE GORDON-ROBY THE VOICE IN THE SONG—MARY GERTRUDE HAMILTON HYMNS AND ANTHEMS SUNG AT WELLESLEY COLLEGE—CAROLINE HAZARD REUBEN ROY—HAROLD CRAWFORD STEARNS COUNTRY ROAD—MARIE LOUISE HERSEY WREATHS—CAROLYN HILLMAN MEMPHIS—GORDON MALHERBE HILLMAN SAINT COLUMBKILLE—E.J.V. HUIGINN MISS DOANE—WINIFRED VIRGINIA JACKSON FALLEN FENCES—WINIFRED VIRGINIA JACKSON CROSS-CURRENTS—WINIFRED VIRGINIA JACKSON THE FAREWELL—WINIFRED VIRGINIA JACKSON SONG—OLIVER JENKINS LOVE AUTUMNAL—OLIVER JENKINS ECHOES—RUTH LAMBERT JONES WAR PICTURES—RUTH LAMBERT JONES AN OLD SONG—ARTHUR KETCHUM ROADSIDE REST—ARTHUR KETCHUM OLD LIZETTE ON SLEEP—AGNES LEE MOTHERHOOD—AGNES LEE ESSEX—GEORGE CABOT LODGE THE SONG OF THE WAVE—GEORGE CABOT LODGE FRIMAIRE—AMY LOWELL PATTERNS—AMY LOWELL A BATHER—AMY LOWELL LEPRECHAUNS AND CLURICAUNS—DENNIS A. MCCARTHY L’ENVOI—DOROTHEA LAWRENCE MANN TO IMAGINATION—DOROTHEA LAWRENCE MANN DRAGON—JEANETTE MARKS GREEN GOLDEN DOOR—JEANETTE MARKS SLEEPY HOLLOW, CONCORD—JOHN CLAIR MINOT THE SWORD OF ARTHUR—JOHN CLAIR MINOT THE DIVINE FOREST—CHARLES R. MURPHY MAGIC—EDWARD J. O’BRIEN MICHAEL PAT—EDWARD J. O’BRIAN SONG—EDWARD J. O’BRIAN IN MEMORIAM: FRANCIS LEDWIDGE—NORREYS JEPHSON O’CONNOR EVENSONG—NORREYS JEPHSON O’CONNOR THE PROPHET—JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY HARVEST-MOON: 1914—JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY HORSEMAN SPRINGING FROM THE DARK: A DREAM—LILLA CABOT PERRY THREE QUATRAINS—LILLA CABOT PERRY A VALENTINE UNSENT—MARGARET PERRY SHIPBUILDERS—ARTHUR STANWOOD PIER UNFADING PICTURES—LOUELLA C. POOLE WITH WAVES AND WINGS—CHARLOTTE PORTER BLUEBERRIES—FRANK PRENTICE RAND NOCTURNE—WILLIAM ROSCOIE THAYER ENVOI—WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER THERE WHERE THE SEA—MARIE TUDOR MARRIAGE—MARIE TUDOR PITY—HAROLD VINAL A ROSE TO THE LIVING—NIXON WATERMAN THE STORM—G.O. WARREN WHERE THEY SLEEP—G.O. WARREN BEAUTY—G.O. WARREN COMRADES—GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY THE FLIGHT—GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY

HOME-BOUND

The moon is a wavering rim where one fish slips, The water makes a quietness of sound; Night is an anchoring of many ships Home-bound.

There are strange tunnelers in the dark, and whirs Of wings that die, and hairy spiders spin The silence into nets, and tenanters Move softly in.

I step on shadows riding through the grass, And feel the night lean cool against my face; And challenged by the sentinel of space, I pass.

JOSEPH AUSLANDER

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Those stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

KATHERINE LEE BATES

YELLOW CLOVER

Must I, who walk alone, come on it still, This Puck of plants The wise would do away with, The sunshine slants To play with, Our wee, gold-dusty flower, the yellow clover, Which once in Parting for a time That then seemed long, Ere time for you was over, We sealed our own? Do you remember yet, O Soul beyond the stars, Beyond the uttermost dim bars Of space, Dear Soul, who found earth sweet, Remember by love’s grace, In dreamy hushes of the heavenly song, How suddenly we halted in our climb, Lingering, reluctant, up that farthest hill, Stooped for the blossoms closest to our feet, And gave them as a token Each to Each, In lieu of speech, In lieu of words too grievous to be spoken, Those little, gypsy, wondering blossoms wet With a strange dew of tears?

So it began, This vagabond, unvalued yellow clover, To be our tenderest language. All the years It lent a new zest to the summer hours, As each of us went scheming to surprise The other with our homely, laureate flowers. Sonnets and odes Fringing our daily roads. Can amaranth and asphodel Bring merrier laughter to your eyes? Oh, if the Blest, in their serene abodes, Keep any wistful consciousness of earth, Not grandeurs, but the childish ways of love, Simplicities of mirth, Must follow them above With touches of vague homesickness that pass Like shadows of swift birds across the grass. Beneath some foreign arch of sky, How many a time the rover You or I, For life oft sundered look from look, And voice from voice, the transient dearth Schooling my soul to brook This distance that no messages may span, Would chance Upon our wilding by a lonely well, Or drowsy watermill, Or swaying to the chime of convent bell, Or where the nightingales of old romance With tragical contraltos fill Dim solitudes of infinite desire; And once I joyed to meet Our peasant gadabout A trespasser on trim, seigniorial seat, Twinkling a saucy eye As potentates paced by.

Our golden cord! our soft, pursuing flame From friendship’s altar fire! How proudly we would pluck and tame The dimpling clusters, mutinously gay! How swiftly they were sent Far, far away On journeys wide, By sea and continent, Green miles and blue leagues over, From each of us to each, That so our hearts might reach, And touch within the yellow clover, Love’s letter to be glad about Like sunshine when it came!

My sorrow asks no healing; it is love; Let love then make me brave To bear the keen hurts of This careless summertide, Ay, of our own poor flower, Changed with our fatal hour, For all its sunshine vanished when you died; Only white clover blossoms on your grave.

KATHERINE LEE BATES

THE RETURNING

We long for her, we yearn for her— Yes, ardently we yearn For her return. Recalling those beloved days (Days intimate with ways Of friends so near to us And life so dear to us), We yearn unspeakably for her return.

And come she must… Yet while we trust We soon may see the passing of this agony Which makes intrusive years still seem A fearsome dream, We know that when she comes She really comes not back again.

She’ll come in other guise And under fairer skies— And yet to bitter pain!

That day she went away Our homes with laughing youth were filled. Where then was happiness Is now distress, The laughter stilled; For when she left Youth followed her— We stay bereft.

So all our golden joy For what she brings Must carry gray alloy: The sorrow that she can not lay, The mysery that she can not stay— While all the gladsome songs she sings Must bear for undertones Old sighs and echoed moans.

As they who go away In flush of youth May come quite worn and gray And bringing naught but ruth— So, when the strife shall cease, And when she comes at last, When all the armies vast Shall at her feet Kneel down to greet Thrice welcome Peace, This world will be so changed (So many dear ones dead, So many friends estranged, So many blessings fled, So many wonted ways forever barred, So many coming days forever marred) That then She truly comes not back again— She, the Peace we knew.