,illustration3 ,,edwin ,,markham ,,giant ,,hours ,,with ,,poet ,,preachers ,,by ,,william ,l4 ,,stidger ,introduction by ,edwin ,markham ,to ,,white-,,souled ,,edwin ,,markham ,,democracy',s ,,voice1 ,,humanity',s ,,friend ,i ,,dedicate ,,this ,,book ,,contents3 ,,introduction4 ,,foreword4 ,,american ,,poets3 ,i4 ,,edwin ,,markham4 ,,ii4 ,,vachel ,,lindsay4 ,,iii4 ,,joaquin ,,miller4 ,,iv4 ,,alan ,,seeger4 ,,english ,,poets ,v4 ,,john ,,oxenham4 ,,vi4 ,,alfred ,,noyes4 ,,vii4 ,,john ,,masefield4 ,,viii4 ,,robert ,,service4 ,,ix4 ,,rupert ,,brooke4 ,,list ,,of ,,portraits3 ,,edwin ,,markham4 ,,vachel ,,lindsay4 ,,joaquin ,,miller4 ,,alan ,,seeger4 ,,john ,,oxenham4 ,,alfred ,,noyes4 ,,john ,,masefield4 ,,robert ,,service4 ,,rupert ,,brooke4 ,,introduction ,in writing to the readers of ,mr4 ,stidger's book ,i feel as though ,i were writing to old friends1 friends who may have an interest in knowing some of the thoughts that ,i hold regarding questions of the hour and questions of the future4 ,the ,christian as he looks out upon the battling and broken world sees much to sadden his heart4 ,thinkers are everywhere asking1 ,is ,christianity a failure8 ,i hasten to assure you that ,christianity has not failed1 for ,christianity has nowhere been tried yet1 nowhere been tried in a large social sense4 ,christianity has been tried by individuals1 and it has been found to be comforting and transforming4 ,but it has never been tried by any large group of people in any one place--never by a whole city--never by a whole kingdom---never by a whole people4 ,it is for this trial that the watching angels are waiting4 ,our holy religion is not a saving power merely for individuals2 it is also a saving power for society in its industrial order4 ,we have applied it to the individual in the past1 but we have never made any wholehearted effort to make religion the working principle of society4 ,religion is always cooperative and brotherly1 but we have not yet made any earnest effort to apply the cooperative and brotherly principle to business4 ,we have tried to persuade the individual to express the ideals of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 but we have made no earnest effort to urge society to express the ideals of the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,therefore1 while it is true that we have individual ,christians--men and women who make noble sacrifices in their effort to live the good life--it is also true that we have no ,christian society anywhere on earth1 no ,christian civilization anywhere under the stars4 ,sometimes a careless talker will refer to our social order as a ,christian civilization4 ,all such references1 dear friends1 disturb our hearts2 for they prove that the speaker has no conception of what a ,christian civilization would be1 how noble and brotherly it would be4 ,five minutes' reading of the ,sermon on the ,mount will convince any alert mind that we are yet thousands of miles from a ,christian civilization4 ,to speak of only one thing1 it is certain that in a ,christian civilization these cruel riches we see standing side by side with these cruel poverties could not exist2 they would all crumble and vanish away in the fire of the social passion of the ,christ4 ,if we have not a ,christian civilization1 what have we8 ,we have a civilization that is half barbaric2 we have a social order with a light sprinkling of ,christians in it4 ,it is the hope of the future that this body of earnest ,christian men and women will awaken to the call of the social ,christ1 awake determined to infuse his spirit into the industrial order1 and thus extend the power of the cross down into the material ground of our existence4 ,men are not fully saved until tools are saved1 till industries are saved4 ,they must all be lit with the brother spirit of ,christ the ,artisan4 ,all of this transformation is implied in the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,for that sermon may be taken to be the first draft of the constitution of the new social order that the ,christ has in his heart for men4 ,it was this new order that he had in mind when he uttered the great invitation1 ,come unto me1 all ye that labor and are heavy laden1 and ,i will give you rest4 ,all the work-worn toilers of the world were to find rest in the new brotherly order about to be established on the earth4 ,the ,master has laid one great duty upon his followers--to embrother men and to emparadise the world4 ,this is a great labor1 for it demands that the spirit of the brother ,christ shall sing in all the wheels and sound in all the steps of our industrial life4 ,it means that the ,golden ,rule shall become the working principle in our social order4 ,this is the salvation that ,christ came to bring to the world2 this is the glad tidings2 this the good news to men6 ,this is only a glimpse of the great social truth of the ,lord that is beginning to break like a new morning upon the world4 ,and what ,i have said in this letter ,i have tried a thousand times to say in my poems that have gone out into the world4 ,and this new note ,i catch in the lines of the poets everywhere in modern poets1 especially in the poets discussed in the following pages4 ,yours in the ,fellowship of the great hopes1 ,signature3 ,edwin ,markham ,west ,new ,brighton1 ,n4 ,y4 ,,foreword ,vachel ,lindsay1 one of the modern ,christian poets1 whose writings are discussed in this book1 has expressed the reason for the book itself in these four lines3 ,i wish that ,i had learned by heart ,some lyrics read that day2 ,i knew not 'twas a giant hour ,that soon would pass away4 ,the author of this book makes no assumption that the ,giant ,hours are in the setting he has given these literary gems1 but in the lyrics themselves4 ,,american ,,poets ,,edwin ,,markham ,,vachel ,,lindsay ,,joaquin ,,miller ,,alan ,,seeger ,,edwin ,,markham ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission of the publishers1 ,doubleday1 ,page ,co41 and are taken from the following works3 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness and ,the ,man with the ,hoe4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,happiness ,,in ,,poverty1 ,,in ,,service1 ,,in ,,lowliness2 ,,and ,a ,,bit ,,of ,,script ,,for ,,the ,,journey ,,of ,,life ,edwin ,markham is the ,david of modern poetry4 ,he is biblical in the simplicity of his style4 ,he1 like the poet of old1 tended sheep on ,the ,suisn ,hills1 and of it he speaks3 ,long1 long ago ,i was a shepherd boy1 ,my young heart touched with wonder and wild joy4 ,,the ,,shoes ,,of ,,happiness4 ,none less than ,william ,dean ,howells has said of him1 ,excepting always my dear ,whitcomb ,riley1 ,edwin ,markham is the first of the ,americans4 ,the greatest poet of the century is the estimate of ,ella ,wheeler ,wilcox2 and ,francis ,grierson adds1 ,edwin ,markham is one of the greatest poets of the age1 and the greatest poet of democracy4 ,dr4 ,david ,g4 ,downey makes his estimate of the poet1 in his book1 ,modern ,poets and ,christian ,teaching1 a little broader and deeper in the two phrases3 ,he is not more poet than prophet1 and1 ,he is the poet of humanity--of man in relations4 ,and of them all ,i feel that the latter estimate is best put1 for ,edwin ,markham is more than the poet of democracy2 he is the poet of all humanity1 down on the earth where humanity lives4 ,and that ,dr4 ,downey was right in calling him prophet one needs but to read some lines from ,the ,man with the ,hoe in the light of the ,russian revolution1 and proof is made3 ,o masters1 lords and rulers in all lands1 ,is this the handiwork you give to ,god1 ,this monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched8 ,how will you ever straighten up this shape8 99 99 99 99 99 ,how will it be with kingdoms and with kings-- ,when those who shaped him to the thing he is-- ,when this dumb ,terror shall reply to ,god1 ,after the silence of the centuries8 ,,the ,,man ,,with ,,the ,,hoe4 ,how will it be with kingdoms and with kings8 the ,man with the ,hoe is answering in ,russia this star-lit night and sun-illumined day4 ,yes1 ,markham is prophet as well as poet4 ,and to this humble writer's way of reading poetry there were never four lines for pure poetry more beautifully writ1 neither across the seas1 nor here at home1 neither east nor west1 than these four from ,virgilia3 ,forget it not till the crowns are crumbled ,and the swords of the kings are rent with rust2 ,forget it not till the hills lie humbled1 ,and the springs of the seas run dust4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,prophetic8 ,yes6 ,but ah1 the music of it6 ,here rings and here sings ,david the shepherd2 the sweet lute1 the harp1 the wind in the trees1 the surge of the ocean-reef4 ,it is music of a high and holy kind4 ,which reminds me that ,i am to treat in this chapter on ,markham only of what he has written since #aijf1 the preceding period1 best known through his ,man with the ,hoe1 having been discussed by ,dr4 ,downey in the book heretofore mentioned4 ,i have the joy-task in these brief lines to bring to you ,markham's ,the ,shoes of ,happiness1 which seems to me the strongest book he has written1 not forgetting1 either1 ,the ,hoe book1 as he himself calls it4 ,if you have the privilege of personal friendship with this ,father ,poet1 he will write for you somewhere1 some time1 some place1 these four favorite lines1 with a twinkle in his eyes that is half boy and half sage1 but all love1 which quatrain he calls ,outwitted3 ,he drew a circle that shut me out-- ,heretic1 rebel1 a thing to flout4 ,but ,love and ,i had the wit to win3 ,we drew a circle that took him in6 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,and with these four lines he introduces the new book of poems1 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,,the ,,happiness ,,of ,,poverty ,one wonders where ,the ,shoes of ,happiness may be found1 and the answer is forthcoming in the first of ,six ,stories1 when he finds that the ,sultan ,mahmoud is near unto death1 and that there is just one thing that will make him well1 and that is that he may wear the shoes of a perfectly happy man3 ,for only by this can you break the ban3 ,you must wear the shoes of a happy man4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,the ,vizier was sent to find these shoes or lose his own head3 ,go forth1 ,vizier1 when the dawn is red1 ,and bring me the shoes1 or send instead1 ,by the hand of this trusted slave1 your head6 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,he first found a crowd of idle rich going forth for a day's outing among the fields and flowers1 a swarm of the folk of high degree1 and thought to find the shoes here1 but1 alas6 he found that ,in each glad heart was a wistful cry2 ,behind each joy was a secret sigh4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,he turned from the rich and sought the homes of the poor1 and the ,father in the home of the poor said unto him3 ,ah1 ,vizier1 ,i have seven sweet joys1 but ,i have one fear3 ,the dread of to-morrow ever is here6 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,a ,poet was found weaving a song of happiness1 and the ,vizier thought that surely here would he find the man with the happy shoes1 but the ,poet cried3 ,no1 sighed the poet2 you do me wrong1 ,for sorrow is ever the nest of song4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,everywhere that he wandered in search he found some touch of unhappiness4 ,he tried ,youth and ,age1 but1 ,the young were restless that youth should stay1 ,the old were sad that it went away4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,he thought to find the shoes on the feet of the ,lover1 but heard the ,lover say3 ,yes1 yes2 but love is a tower of fears1 ,a joy half torment1 a heaven half tears6 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,he had heard of a wise old ,sage1 who had been to ,mecca1 and sought him only to hear1 ,i am not glad2 ,i am only wise4 ,at last he heard of a man from far ,algiers4 ,with hurried steps he sought in vain4 ,at last one day he found a man lying in a field3 ',ho1' cried ,halil1 ',i am seeking one ,whose days are all in a brightness run4'-- ',then ,i am he1 for ,i have no lands1 ,nor have any gold to crook my hands4 ,favor1 nor fortune1 nor fame have ,i1 ,and ,i only ask for a road and a sky-- ,these1 and a pipe of the willow-tree ,to whisper the music out of me4' ,out into the field the vizier ran4 ',allah-il-,allah6 but you are the man2 ,your shoes then1 quick1 for the great sultan-- ,quick1 and all fortunes are yours to choose6' ',yes1 mighty ,vizier1444 but ,i have no shoes6' ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,,the ,,happiness ,,of ,,lowliness ,and just as this opening poem teaches the happiness of poverty1 so the next1 ,the ,juggler of ,touraine1 teaches the happiness of lowliness4 ,poor ,barnabas1 just a common juggler1 when winter came1 because he had been spending the summer amusing people1 had no place to go1 and a sympathetic monk took him into the monastery to live4 ,barnabas was happy for a time2 but after a while1 as he saw everybody else worshiping the ,beautiful ,mother with lute and brush1 viol1 drum1 talent1 and prayer1 he began to feel that his talents were worthless3 ,but ,i1 poor ,barnabas1 nothing can ,i1 ,but drone in the sun as a drowsy fly4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,then came a thought that leaped like flame over his being1 and an hour later the monks found him1 kneeling in the sacred altar place4 ,what he was doing chagrined them4 ,they were shocked just as many people of this day1 to see a man worshiping with a different bend of the knee than that to which they had been accustomed4 ,how prone we are to judge those who do not worship just as we have worshiped6 ,this seems such a common human weakness that ,alfred ,noyes1 with a touch of kindly indignation1 speaks a word in ,the ,forest of ,wild ,thyme that may be interjected just here in this study of ,barnabas the juggler1 whom the monks indignantly found worshiping the ,virgin by juggling his colored balls in the air1 and speaking thus as he juggled3 ',lady1' he cried again1 'look1 ,i entreat3 ,i worship with fingers1 and body1 and feet6 ,and they heard him cry at ,our ,lady's shrine3 ',all that ,i am1 ,madame1 all is thine6 ,again ,i come with spangle and ball ,to lay at your altar my little1 my all6' ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,but the poor old monks were indignant4 ,they1 and some others of more modern days1 had never caught the real gist of the ,judge not of the ,new ,testament2 nor had they read ,noyes3 ,how foolish1 then1 you will agree1 ,are those who think that all must see ,the world alike1 or those who scorn ,another1 who perchance1 was born ,where--in a different dream from theirs-- ,what they called sins to him are prayers6 ,we cannot judge2 we cannot know2 ,all things mingle1 all things flow2 ,there's only one thing constant here-- ,love--that untranscended sphere3 ,love1 that while all ages run ,holds the wheeling worlds in one2 ,love1 that1 as your sages tell1 ,soars to heaven and sinks to hell4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,no1 we have no right to judge one another4 ,the monks condemned poor ,barnabas because he was not worshiping as they had always worshiped4 ,they too forgot the real spirit of worship as they condemned him3 ',nothing like this do the rules provide6 ,this is scandal1 this is a shame1 ,this madcap prank in ,our ,lady's name4 ,out of the doors with him2 back to the street3 ,he has no place at ,our ,lady's feet6' ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,however1 then1 as now1 men are not the final judges3 ,but why do the elders suddenly quake1 ,their eyes a-stare and their knees a-shake8 ,down from the rafters arching high1 ,her blowing mantle blue with the sky-- ,lightly down from the dark descends ,the ,lady of ,beauty and lightly bends ,over ,barnabas stretched in the altar place1 ,and wipes the dew from his shining face2 ,then touching his hair with a look of light1 ,passes again from the mortal sight4 ,an odor of lilies hallows the air1 ,and sounds as of harpings are everywhere4 ',ah1' cry the elders1 beating the breast1 ',so the lowly deed is the lofty test6 ,and whatever is done from the heart to ,him ,is done from the height of the ,seraphim6' ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,,how ,,the ,,great ,,guest ,,came ,a ,,study ,,of ,,complete ,,happiness ,,in ,,service ,i have never found a poem which more truly pictures the ,christ and how he comes to human beings than this one of ,markham's4 ,conrad the cobbler had a dream1 when he had grown old1 that the ,master would come ,his guest to be4 ,he arose at dawn on that day of great expectations1 decorated his simple shop with boughs of green and waited3 ,his friends went home2 and his face grew still ,as he watched for the shadow across the sill2 ,he lived all the moments o'er and o'er1 ,when the ,lord should enter the lowly door-- ,the knock1 the call1 the latch pulled up1 ,the lighted face1 the offered cup4 ,he would wash the feet where the spikes had been2 ,he would kiss the hands where the nails went in2 ,and then at last he would sit with him ,and break the bread as the day grew dim4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,but the ,master did not come4 ,instead came a beggar and the cobbler gave him shoes2 instead came an old crone with a heavy load of faggots4 ,he gave her a lift with her load and some of the food that he had prepared for the ,christ when he should come4 ,finally a little child came1 crying along the streets1 lost4 ,he pitied the child and left his shop to take it to its mother2 such was his great heart of love4 ,he hurried back that he might not miss the ,great ,guest when he came4 ,but the ,great ,guest did not come4 ,as the evening came and the shadows were falling through the window of his shop1 more and more the truth1 with all its weight of sadness1 bore in upon him1 that the dream was not to come true2 that he had made a mistake2 that ,christ was not to come to his humble shop4 ,his heart was broken and he cried out in his disappointment3 ,why is it1 ,lord1 that your feet delay8 ,did you forget that this was the day8 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,then what sweeter scene in all the lines of the poetry of the world than this that follows8 ,where is ,christ more wonderfully and simply summed up2 his spirit of love1 and care8 ,then soft in the silence a voice he heard3 ',lift up your heart1 for ,i kept my word4 ,three times ,i came to your friendly door2 ,three times my shadow was on your floor4 ,i was the beggar with bruised feet2 ,i was the woman you gave to eat2 ,i was the child on the homeless street6' ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,one is reminded here of ,masefield's ,the ,everlasting ,mercy1 wherein he speaks as ,markham speaks about the child3 ,and he who gives a child a treat ,makes joy-bells ring in ,heaven's street2 ,and he who gives a child a home ,builds palaces in ,kingdom ,come2 ,and she who gives a baby birth ,brings ,saviour ,christ again to earth4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of one of these my brethren1 ye have done it unto me1 another great-hearted ,poet once said2 and these words ,markham1 in ,how the ,great ,guest ,came1 has made real4 ,,script ,,for ,,the ,,journey ,script for the ,journey is all that it claims to be4 ,markham is not doing what ,lindsay did4 ,lindsay started out on a long journey with only his poems for money4 ,he meant to make his way buying his food with a verse4 ,and he did that very thing4 ,but ,markham had a different idea1 an idea that all of us need script for that larger journey1 script that is not money and script that does not buy mere material food1 but food for the soul4 ,he means it to be script that will help us along the hard way4 ,and he who has this script is rich indeed1 in his inner life4 ,,the ,,place ,,of ,,peace ,one would pay much for peace at any time1 but especially when one on the journey of life is wearied unto death with sin1 and bickering1 and trouble and hurt and pain4 ,life holds so much heartache and heartbreak4 ,markham has herein the answer3 ,at the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky1 ,and flinging the clouds and the towers by1 ,is a place of central calm2 ,so here in the roar of mortal things1 ,i have a place where my spirit sings1 ,in the hollow of ,god's palm4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,and when we learn to put our business ventures there as ,abbey has his ,sir ,galahad do in the ,vigil panel of ,the ,search for the ,holy ,grail1 in ,boston ,library2 and when we have learned to put our homes1 and our children1 and our souls ,in the hollow of ,god's palm1 there will be peace on the journey of life4 ,yes1 that is good script4 ,,anchored ,,to ,,the ,,infinite ,what a lesson the poet brings us from the great swinging bridge at ,niagara1 as he tells of the tiny thread that was flown from a kite from shore to shore2 and then a larger string1 and then a heavy cord1 and then a rope1 and finally the great cable1 and the mighty bridge4 ,and this he applies to life6 ,so we may send our little timid thought ,across the void out to ,god's reaching hands--,send out our love and faith to thread the deep-- ,thought after thought until the little cord ,has greatened to a chain no chance can break1 ,and--we are anchored to the ,infinite4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,who does not need to know how simple a thing will lead to infinite anchorage8 ,who does not need to know that just the tiny threads of love and faith will draw greater cords and greater1 stronger ropes until at last the chasm between man and ,god on the journey is bridged1 and we may be anchored to him forever4 ,this indeed is good script for the journey of life ,godward4 ,,there ,,is ,,no ,,time ,,for ,,hate ,the world is full of hate these days4 ,war-mad ,germany produced ,the ,hymn of ,hate1 the lowest song that ever was written in the history of the world4 ,it seems impossible that a censorship so strict could ever let such a mass of mire out to the world4 ,but when one reads this ,markham poem1 he somehow feels that life is so big1 and yet so brief1 that even in war we are all brother-men and1 as the opening lines say1 ,there is no time for hate1 ,o wasteful friend3 ,put hate away until the ages end4 ,have you an ancient wound8 ,forget the wrong4 ,out in my ,west1 a forest loud with song ,towers high and green over a field of snow1 ,over a glacier buried far below4 ,the ,shoes of ,happiness4 ,and if all the world would learn the meaning of this great phrase1 ,there is no time for hate1 the world would happier be4 ,good script for the journey8 ,the best there is1 is to know ,there is no time for hate4 ,,ii ,,vachel ,,lindsay1 ,,poet ,,of ,,town2 ,,and ,,city ,,too ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from the following works3 ,the ,congo1 and ,general ,william ,booth ,enters ,into ,heaven1 ,published by the ,macmillan ,company1 ,new ,york4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,christian ,,influences ,,in ,,village ,,and ,,city2 ,,on ,,temperance1 ,,missions1 ,,and ,,races ,vachel ,lindsay is not only a poet but he is also a preacher4 ,i do not know whether he is ordained or not1 but in a leaflet that he recently sent me1 he says1 ,mr4 ,lindsay offers the following sermons to be preached on short notice and without a collection1 in any chapel that will open its doors as he passes by3 ',the ,gospel of the ,hearth1' ',the ,gospel of ,voluntary ,poverty1' ',the ,holiness of ,beauty4' ,his truly great book1 ,the ,congo1 that poem which so sympathetically catches the spirit of the uplift of the ,negro race through ,christianity1 that weird1 musical1 chanting1 swinging1 singing1 sweeping1 weeping1 rhythmic1 flowing1 swaying1 clanging1 banging1 leaping1 laughing1 groaning1 moaning book of the elementals1 was inspired suddenly1 one ,sabbath evening1 as the poet sat in church listening to a returned missionary speaking on ,the ,congo4 ,nor a ,poe nor a ,lanier ever wrote more weirdly or more musically4 ,illustration3 ,,vachel ,,lindsay ,the poet himself1 ,christian to the bone1 suggests that his poetry must be chanted to get the full sweep and beauty4 ,this ,i have done1 alone by my wood fire of a long ,california evening1 and have found it strangely1 beautifully1 wonderfully full of memories of church4 ,i think that it is the echo of old hymns that ,i catch in his poetry4 ,biblical they are1 in their simplicity1 ,christian until they drip with love4 ,,christ ,,and ,,the ,,city ,,soul ,i think that no ,christian poet has so caught the soul of the real city4 ,one phrase that links ,christ with the city is the old-fashioned yet ever thrilling phrase1 ,the ,soul of the ,city ,receives the ,gift of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,an electrical sign suggests prayer to him4 ,it is a unique thought in ,a ,rhyme ,about ,an ,electrical ,advertising ,sign1 the lines of which startle one almost with their newness3 ,some day this old ,broadway shall climb to the skies1 ,as a ribbon of cloud on a soul-wind shall rise4 ,and we shall be lifted rejoicing by night1 ,till we join with the planets who choir their delight4 ,the signs in the street and the signs in the skies ,shall make a new ,zodiac guiding the wise1 ,and ,broadway make one1 with that marvelous stair ,that is climbed by the rainbow-clad spirits of prayer4 ,the ,congo4 ,he looks straight up above the signs to heaven4 ,but he does not forget to look down also1 where the people are1 the folks that walk and live and crawl under the electric signs4 ,in ,galahad1 ,knight ,who ,perished 7a poem dedicated to all crusaders against the international and interstate traffic in young girls71 this phrase rings and rings its way into ,christian consciousness3 ,galahad--knight who perished--awaken again1 ,teach us to fight for immaculate ways among men4 ,the ,congo4 ,and again and again one is rudely awakened from his ease by such lines as ,the leaden-eyed children of the city which he pictures3 ,not that they starve1 but starve so dreamlessly2 ,not that they sow1 but that they seldom reap2 ,not that they serve1 but have no gods to serve2 ,not that they die1 but that they die like sheep4 ,the ,congo4 ,who has not seen factory windows in village1 town1 and city1 and who has not known that ,factory windows are always broken8 ,how this smacks of pall1 and smoke1 and dirt1 and grind1 and hurt and little weak children1 slaves of industry6 ,thank ,god1 ,vachel ,lindsay1 that the ,christian ,church has found an ally in you2 and poet and preacher together--for they are both akin--pray ,god we may soon abolish forever child slavery4 ,yes1 no wonder ,factory windows are always broken4 ,the children break them because they hate a prison4 ,the ,coal ,heaver1 ,the ,scissors ,grinder1 ,the ,mendicant1 ,the ,tramp1 all so smacking of the city1 have their interpretation4 ,i wish in these pages might be quoted all of ,the ,soul of the ,city ,receives the ,gift of the ,holy ,spirit1 for it daringly1 beautifully1 and strongly carries into the new philosophy which ,mr4 ,lindsay is introducing the thought that every village1 every town1 every city has a community soul that must be saved1 through ,christian influence4 ,but the ring of it and the swing of it will suggest itself in a few verses3 ,censers are swinging ,over the town2 ,censers are swinging1 ,look overhead6 ,censers are swinging1 ,heaven comes down4 ,city1 dead city1 ,awake from the dead6 99 99 99 99 99 ,soldiers of ,christ ,for battle grow keen4 ,heaven-sent winds ,haunt alley and lane4 ,singing of life ,in town-meadows green ,after the toil ,and battle and pain4 99 99 99 99 99 ,builders1 toil on1 ,make all complete4 ,make ,springfield wonderful4 ,make her renown ,worthy this day1 ,till at ,god's feet1 ,tranced1 saved forever1 ,waits the white town4 ,the ,congo4 ,ah1 if we could but catch this vision of not only the individuals but the city itself receiving the gift of the ,holy ,spirit1 we would have therein a new and a tremendous force for good4 ,one might quote from ,the ,drunkards in the ,street3 ,within their gutters1 drunkards dream of ,hell4 ,i say my prayers by my white bed to-night1 ,with the arms of ,god about me1 with the angels singing1 singing ,until the grayness of my soul grows white4 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,he goes to the bottom of the social evil1 down to its economic causes1 and blames the state for ,the ,trap1 and this striking couplet rings in one's heart long after the book is laid down3 ,in liberty's name we cry ,for these women about to die6 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,the poet who speaks in ,the ,city ,that ,will ,not ,repent is only feeling over again1 ,o ,jerusalem1 ,jerusalem1444 how often would ,i have gathered thy children together1 even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings1 and ye would not6 ,the ,old ,horse in the ,city1 ,to ,reformers in ,despair1 ,the ,gamblers--it is all there3 the heartaches1 the struggle for existence1 the fallen woman1 the outcast man1 the sound of drums1 the tambourines1 the singing of the mission halls4 ,you find it all1 especially in ,general ,william ,booth ,enters ,into ,heaven4 ,here is life--the very life of life in the city4 ,,foreign ,,missions ,they who have found opposition to foreign missions will discover with a thrill a new helper in ,poet ,lindsay1 he who has won the ear of the literary world4 ,it is good to hear one of his worth1 singing the battle challenge of missions1 just as it is good to hear him call the modern village1 town1 and city to ,the ,gift of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,foreign ,fields in ,battle ,array brings this thrillingly prophetic1 ,isaiahanic verse3 ,what is the final ending8 ,the issue can we know8 ,will ,christ outlive ,mohammed8 ,will ,kali's altar go8 ,this is our faith tremendous--- ,our wild hope1 who shall scorn-- ,that in the name of ,jesus1 ,the world shall be reborn6 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,reborn--does not that phrase sound familiar to ,methodist ears1 as does that other phrase1 ,the ,soul of the ,city ,receives the ,gift of the ,holy ,spirit8 ,or1 again1 hear two lines from ,star of ,my ,heart3 ,all hearts of the earth shall find new birth ,and wake no more to sin4 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,,temperance ,in these days1 when the world is being swept clean with the besom of temperance1 the poet who sings the song of temperance is the poet that sings to battle4 ,lindsay has done this in some lines in his ,general ,william ,booth ,enters ,into ,heaven1 which he admits having written while a field worker in the ,anti-,saloon ,league in ,illinois4 ,at the end of each verse we have one of these three couplets3 ,but spears are set1 the charge is on1 ,wise ,arthur shall be ,king6 ,fierce ,cromwell builds the flower-bright towns ,and a more sunlit land2 and1 ,our ,god establishes his arm ,and makes the battle sure6 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,he puts the temperance worker in the ,round ,table under the heading1 ,king ,arthur's ,men ,have ,come ,again4 ,he lifts the battle to a high realm4 ,to go about redressing human wrongs1 as ,king ,arthur's ,knights were sworn to do1 would certainly be a most appropriate motto for the modern ,christian temperance worker1 and ,lindsay is the only poet acknowledged by the literary world who has sung this ,galahad's praise with keen insight4 ,but his greatest poem1 ,the ,congo1 that poem which has captured the imagination of the literary world and which is so little known to the ,christian world--where it ought to be known best of all--will give a glimpse of the new ,christian influence on the races4 ,the poet suggests that it be chanted to the tune of the old hymn1 ,hark1 ten thousand harps and voices4 ,it is a strange poem4 ,it is so new that it is startling1 but it has won4 ,listen to its strange swing1 and see its stranger pictures4 ,through the thin veneer of a new civilization1 back of the ,christianized ,negro race1 the poet sees1 under the inspiration of a missionary sermon delivered in a modern church1 the race that was3 ,fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room1 ,barrel-house kings with feet unstable1 ,sagged and reeled and pounded on the table1 ,pounded on the table1 ,beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom1 ,hard as they were able1 ,boom1 boom1 ,,boom ,with a silk umbrella1 and the handle of a broom1 ,boomlay1 boomlay1 boomlay1 ,,boom ,then ,i had religion1 then ,i had a vision4 ,i could not turn from their revel in derision4 ,,then ,i ,,saw ,,the ,,congo ,,creeping ,,through ,,the ,,black1 ,,cutting ,,through ,,the ,,forests ,,with ,a ,,golden ,,track6 ,the ,congo4 ,then follows as vital1 vivid1 and vigorous a description as ever was written by pen1 inspired of ,god1 tipped with fire1 of the uplift and redemption of the ,negro race1 through ,jesus ,christ4 ,the ,general ,william ,booth title poem to the second ,lindsay book shook the literary world awake with its perfect interpretation of ,the ,salvation ,army leader4 ,it is a poem to be chanted at first with ,bass drums beaten loudly and then with banjos2 then softly with sweet flute music1 and finally1 as the great ,general comes face to face with ,christ1 with a ,grand chorus of all instruments2 tambourines to the foreground4 ,running through this poem is the refrain of ,are you washed in the blood of the ,lamb8 and the last lines catch the tender1 yet absolutely unique spirit of the entire poem3 ,and when ,booth halted by the curb for prayer ,he saw his ,master thro' the flag-filled air4 ,christ came gently with a robe and crown ,for ,booth the soldier1 while the throng knealt down4 ,he saw ,king ,jesus4 ,they were face to face1 ,and he knealt a-weeping in that holy place1 ,are you washed in the blood of the ,lamb8 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,but one could not get ,lindsay to the hearts of folks1 one could not make the picture complete1 without putting ,lincoln in1 any more than he could make ,lindsay complete without putting into these pages ,the ,soul of the ,city ,receives the ,gift of the ,holy ,spirit1 or ,general ,william ,booth ,enters ,into ,heaven1 or ,the ,congo4 ,lincoln seems to be as much a part of ,lindsay as he is a part of ,springfield4 ,lindsay and ,lincoln1 to those who love both1 mean ,springfield1 and ,springfield means ,lincoln and ,lindsay4 ,and what ,lindsay is trying to do for city1 for village1 for town1 for the ,negro1 for every human being1 is voiced in his poem1 ,lincoln4 ,would ,i might rouse the ,lincoln in you all1 ,that which is gendered in the wilderness1 ,from lonely prairies and ,god's tenderness4 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,let this poem ,heart of ,god be the benediction of this chapter on ,lindsay3 ,o great heart of ,god1 ,once vague and lost to me1 ,why do ,i throb with your throb to-night1 ,in this land1 eternity8 ,o1 little heart of ,god1 ,sweet intruding stranger1 ,you are laughing in my human breast1 ,a ,christ-child in a manger4 ,heart1 dear heart of ,god1 ,beside you now ,i kneel1 ,strong heart of faith4 ,o heart not mine1 ,where ,god has set ,his seal4 ,wild1 thundering heart of ,god1 ,out of my doubt ,i come1 ,and my foolish feet with prophets' feet ,march with the prophets' drum6 ,general ,william ,booth4 ,illustration3 ,,joaquin ,,miller ,,iii ,,joaquin ,,miller ,footnote3 ,the quotations from the poems of ,joaquin ,miller appearing in this chapter are used by permission of the ,harr ,wagner ,publishing ,company1 owners of copyright4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,home1 ,,father ,,love1 ,,great ,,moments ,,with ,,jesus ,,christ1 ,,heaven1 ,,and ,,god ,it was a warm1 sunny ,may ,california day2 and the day stands out1 even above ,california days4 ,a climb up the ,piedmont hills back of ,oakland1 ,california1 brought us to ,the ,heights1 the unique home of ,joaquin ,miller1 poet of the ,west and poet of the world4 ,a visit to the homes of the ,new ,england poets is always interesting because of historic and literary associations1 but none of them has the touch of the unique personality of ,miller4 ,most people interested in things literary know that ,miller1 with a great desire to emphasize the freedom of the individual1 built a half dozen separate houses1 one for himself1 one for his wife1 one for his daughter ,juanita1 several for guests from all over the world who were always visiting him1 and a little chapel4 ,literary men from every nation on the planet visited ,miller at ,the ,heights4 ,most people interested knew also that ,miller1 with his own hands1 had built monuments of stone to ,fremont1 the explorer1 to ,moses1 and to ,browning4 ,there was also a granite funeral pyre for himself1 within sight of the little ,god's ,acre1 in which he had buried some eighteen or twenty outcasts and derelicts of earth who had no other plot to call their own in which to take their last long sleep4 ,we expected to find this strange group of buildings deserted1 but after inspecting the chapel1 which was modeled after ,newstead ,abbey1 and after rambling through the old-fashioned garden that ,miller himself had planted--a garden with a perfect riot of colors--suddenly a little woman with a sweet face walked up to us out of the bushes and said1 ,are you lovers of the poet8 ,i humbly replied that we were4 ,then she said3 ,i am ,mrs4 ,miller1 and you are welcome4 ,when you have looked around1 come into ,mr4 ,miller's own room and be refreshed4 ,after that ,i will read to you from his writings4 ,it sounded stagey at first1 but the more we knew of this sweet-faced widow of the poet the less we found about her that was not simple and sweet and natural4 ,after wandering around1 through the fascinating paths1 under the great cross of a thousand pine trees1 among the roses1 and flowers that he had planted with his own hands1 we came at last to the little house that ,mrs4 ,miller had called ,the poet's own room1 and there were we refreshed with cool lemonade and cakes4 ,in the littleness of my soul ,i wondered when we were to pay for these favors1 but the longer we remained the more was ,i shamed as ,i saw that this hospitality was just the natural expression of a woman1 and a beautiful daughter's desire to extend the hospitality of the dead poet himself1 to any who loved his writings4 ,there was the bed on which ,miller lay for months writing many of his greatest poems1 including the famous ,columbus4 ,there was his picturesque sombrero1 still hanging where he had put it last on the post of the great bed4 ,his pen was at hand2 his writing pad1 his chair1 his great fur coat1 his handkerchief of many colors which in life he always wore about his neck2 his great heavy1 high-topped boots4 ,and it was sunset4 ,then ,mrs4 ,miller began to read4 ,as the slanting rays of as crimson a sunset as ,god ever painted were falling through the great cross of pine trees1 ,mrs4 ,miller's dramatic1 sweet1 sympathetic voice interpreted his poems for us4 ,i sat on the bed from which ,miller had1 just a few months previous to that1 heard the great call4 ,the others sat in his great rockers4 ,mrs4 ,miller stood as she read4 ,i am sure that ,columbus will never be lifted into the sublime as it was when she read it that late ,may afternoon1 with its famous1 and thrilling phrase ,sail on6 ,sail on6 ,and on6 ,and on6 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,home ,i had thought before hearing ,mrs4 ,miller read ,the ,greatest ,battle that ,ever was ,fought that ,i had caught all the subtle meanings of it1 but after her reading that great tribute to womanhood ,i knew that ,i had never dreamed the half of its inner meaning3 ,the greatest battle that ever was fought--- ,shall ,i tell you where and when8 ,on the maps of the world you will find it not3 ,it was fought by the ,mothers of ,men4 ,not with cannon or battle shot1 ,with sword or nobler pen2 ,not with eloquent word or thought ,from the wonderful minds of men2 ,but deep in a walled up woman's heart2 ,a woman that would not yield2 ,but bravely and patiently bore her part2 ,lo6 there is that battlefield4 ,no marshaling troops1 no bivouac song1 ,no banner to gleam and wave2 ,but ,oh these battles they last so long--,from babyhood to the grave6 ,but faithful still as a bridge of stars ,she fights in her walled up town2 ,fights on1 and on1 in the endless wars2 ,then silent1 unseen goes down ,i ,ho6 ye with banners and battle shot1 ,with soldiers to shout and praise1 ,i tell you the kingliest victories fought ,are fought in these silent ways4 ,then1 as if to give us another illustration of her great poet husband's home love1 she read for us ,juanita3 ,you will come1 my bird1 ,bonita8 ,come1 for ,i by steep and stone1 ,have built such nest1 for you1 ,juanita1 ,as not eagle bird hath known4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,all is finished6 ,roads of flowers ,wait your loyal little feet4 ,all completed8 ,nay1 the hours ,till you come are incomplete6 ,who that hath the blessing of little children will not understand this waiting1 yearning love of ,miller for his ten-year-old girl1 who was at that time in ,new ,york with her mother waiting until ,the ,heights should be finished8 ,who does not understand how incomplete the hours were until she came8 ,you will come1 my dearest1 truest8 ,come1 my sovereign queen of ten3 ,my blue sky will then be bluest2 ,my white rose be whitest then4 ,,great ,,moments ,,with ,,christ ,miller had a profound1 deep1 sincere love for ,christ1 and more than any poet ,i know did he express with deep insight and with deeper sweetness the great moments in ,christ's life4 ,he made these great moments human4 ,he brings them near to us1 so that we see them more clearly4 ,he makes them warm our hearts1 and we feel that ,christ's words are truly our words in this1 our own day4 ,in that great scene where ,christ blessed little children1 who has ever made it sweeter and nearer and warmer with human touch8 ,then reaching his hands1 he said1 lowly1 ',of such is my ,kingdom1' and then ,took the little brown babes in the holy ,white hands of the ,saviour of ,men2 ,held them close to his heart and caressed them1 ,put his face down to theirs as in prayer1 ,put their hands to his neck and so blessed them ,with baby-hands hid in his hair4 ,the scene with the woman taken in adultery he has also made human and near in these lines1 called ,charity3 ,who now shall accuse and arraign us8 ,what man shall condemn and disown8 ,since ,christ has said only the stainless ,shall cast at his fellows a stone8 ,that ,jesus ,christ died for the world1 that ,calvary had more meaning for humanity than anything else that has ever happened1 ,miller put in four lines3 ,look starward6 stand far1 and unearthy1 ,free souled as a banner unfurled4 ,be worthy6 ,o1 brother1 be worthy6 ,for a ,god was the price of the world6 ,he caught ,christ's teaching1 and the whole gist of the ,new ,testament expressed in that immortal phrase ,judge not1 and he wrote some lines that have been on the lips of man the world over1 and shall continue to be as long as men speak poetry4 ,a unique pleasure was mine on this afternoon4 ,i had noticed something that ,mrs4 ,miller had not noticed in this great poem4 ,she quoted it to us3 ,in men whom men condemn as ill ,i find so much of goodness still2 ,in men whom men pronounce ,divine ,i find so much of sin and blot1 ,i hesitate to draw the line ,between the two1 where ,god has not6 ,miller wrote it that way when he first wrote it1 in his younger days4 ,it was natural for ,mrs4 ,miller to quote it that way4 ,but ,i had discovered in his revised and complete poems that he had changed a significant phrase in that great verse4 ,he had said1 ,i do not dare1 in the fifth line1 instead of ,i hesitate4 ,his mature years had made him say1 ,i do not dare to draw the line6 ,,god ,,and ,,heaven ,he knew that heaven and ,god were near to humanity and earth4 ,he was not afraid of death4 ,he teaches us all ,christian courage in this line of thought4 ,he knew that his ,greek ,heights were very near to heaven because he knew that anywhere is near to heaven to the believer3 ,be this my home till some fair star ,stoops earthward and shall beckon me2 ,for surely ,god-land lies not far ,from these ,greek ,heights and this great sea6 ,he yearned to teach men to believe in this ,god and his nearness2 this ,god in whom he believed with all his heart4 ,this cry out of his soul1 written just a few days before his death1 is like ,tennyson's ,crossing ,the ,bar in that it was his swan song3 ,could ,i but teach man to believe1 ,could ,i but make small men to grow1 ,to break frail spider webs that weave ,about their thews and bind them low4 ,could ,i but sing one song and lay ,grim ,doubt2 ,i then could go my way ,in tranquil silence1 glad1 serene1 ,and satisfied from off the scene4 ,but ,ah6 this disbelief1 this doubt1 ,this doubt of ,god1 this doubt of ,god ,the damned spot will not out6 ,wouldst learn to know one little flower1 ,its perfume1 perfect form1 or hue8 ,yea1 wouldst thou have one perfect hour ,of all the years that come to you8 ,then grow as ,god hath planted1 grow ,a lovely oak1 or daisy low1 ,as he hath set his garden2 be ,just what thou art1 or grass or tree4 ,thy treasures up in heaven laid ,await thy sure ascending soul3 ,life after life--be not afraid ,i ,yes1 ,miller believed in home1 in ,christ1 and ,god and immortality4 ,he believed that heaven and ,god were near to man1 and in his last days there was no doubt4 ,thus his own writings confirm what ,mrs4 ,miller1 on that memorable afternoon1 made certain by her warm1 tear-wet1 personal testimony4 ,and as she quoted these last lines1 and the sun had set behind the ,golden ,gate1 which we could even then see from the room in which we sat1 we felt as though ,miller himself were near1 listening as she read1 listening with us4 ,and these are the last verses that she quoted1 which seem fit verses with which to close this chapter study of ,joaquin ,miller3 ,i will my ashes to my steeps1 ,i will my steeps1 green cross1 red rose1 ,to those who love the beautiful1 ,come1 learn to be of those4 ,and is it any wonder that1 as we sat in the twilight listening to that invitation to his home1 these words made the red roses and the green cross of ,christ against the hill our very own8 ,and is it any wonder that1 as she quoted these last verses we felt him near to us8 ,enough to know that ,i and you ,shall breathe together there as here ,some clearer1 sweeter atmosphere1 ,shall walk1 high1 wider ways above ,our petty selves1 shall learn to lead ,man up and up in thought and deed4 and1 ,come here when ,i am far away1 ,fond lovers of this lovely land1 ,and sit quite still and do not say1 ',turn right or left and lend a hand1' ,but sit beneath my kindly trees ,and gaze far out yon sea of seas4 ,these trees1 these very stones could tell ,how much ,i loved them and how well1 ,and maybe ,i shall come and sit ,beside you2 sit so silently ,you will not reck of it4 ,illustration3 ,,alan ,,seeger ,,iv ,,alan ,,seeger ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,published by ,charles ,scribner's ,sons1 ,new ,york4 ,,poet ,,of ,,youth1 ,,beauty1 ,,fame1 ,,joy1 ,,love1 ,,death1 ,,and ,,god ,rupert ,brooke and ,alan ,seeger--so shall their names be linked together forever by those who love poetry4 ,in the first place1 they were much alike3 buoyant1 young2 loving life1 living life2 and both dying for the great cause of humanity in the world's greatest war4 ,brooke the ,englishman2 ,seeger the ,american2 so are they linked4 ,both were but lads in their twenties2 both vivid as lightning and as warm as summer sunshine in their personalities2 both truly great poets1 who had1 even in the short time they lived1 run a wide gamut of poetic expression4 ,i am not saying that either ,brooke or ,seeger may be called a ,christian poet2 nor am ,i saying that they may not be called that4 ,this war in which they have given their lives will make a vast difference in the definition of what a ,christian is4 ,i can detect no orthodox ,christian message in either of their dreamings1 but ,i do find in both poets a clean1 high moral message1 and therefore give them place in this pulpit of the poets4 ,the wide range of this young ,american's writing astonishes the reader4 ,he died very young3 while the morning sun was just lifting its head above the eastern horizon of life2 while the heavens were still crimson1 and gold1 and rose1 and fire4 ,what he might have written in the steady white heat of noontime and in life's glorious afternoon of experience1 and in its subtle charm of sunset and the evening star1 one can only guess4 ,but while he lived he lived2 and1 living1 wrote4 ,he dipped his pen in that same gold and fire of the only part of life he knew1 its daybreak1 and wrote4 ,no wonder his writing was warm2 no wonder he wrote of ,youth1 ,beauty1 ,fame1 ,joy1 ,love1 ,death1 and ,god4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,youth ,nor ,byron1 nor ,shelley1 nor ,keats1 nor ,swinburne1 nor ,brooke1 nor any other poet ever sounded the heights and depths and glory of ,youth as did ,seeger4 ,he sang it as he breathed it and lived it1 and just as naturally4 ,his singing of it was as rhythmic as breathing1 and as sweet as the first song of an oriole in springtime4 ,in his fifth sonnet1 a form in which he loved to write and of which he was a master1 he sings youth in terms almost divine3 ,phantoms of bliss that beckon and recede--1 ,thy strange allurements1 ,city that ,i love1 ,maze of romance1 where ,i have followed too ,the dream ,youth treasures of its dearest need ,and stars beyond thy towers bring tidings of4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,he loved ,new ,york2 he loved ,paris2 he loved any city because youth and life and romance and love were there4 ,he drank all of these into his soul like a thirsty desert drinks rain2 to spring to flowers and life and color again4 ,he drank of life and youth as a flower drinks of dew1 or a bird at a city fountain1 with fluttering joy1 drinks1 singing as it drinks4 ,you feel all of that eagerness in ,sonnet ,,vi where he says3 ,where ,i drank deep the bliss of being young1 ,the strife and sweet potential flux of things ,i sought ,youth's dream of happiness among6 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,beauty ,and closely akin to ,youth always is ,beauty4 ,beauty and ,youth walk arm in arm everywhere1 and one may even go so far as to say anywhere4 ,youth cares not where he goes as long as ,beauty walks beside him4 ,he will walk to the ends of the earth4 ,indeed1 he prefers the long way home4 ,anybody who has known both ,youth and ,beauty knows this1 and it need not be argued about much1 thank ,god4 ,and so it is most natural to find this young poet singing the lyric of ,beauty even as he sings the lyric of ,youth4 ,how understandingly he addresses ,beauty1 and how reverently in ,an ,ode to ,natural ,beauty6 ,spirit of ,beauty1 whose sweet impulses1 ,flung like the rose of dawn across the sea1 ,alone can flush the exalted consciousness ,with shafts of sensible divinity1 ,light of the ,world1 essential loveliness4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,then1 talking about the ,wanderer as though that character were some far off person no kin to the poet 7a way that poets have to hide the pulsing of their own hearts71 ,seeger writes of ,beauty4 ,but we who know him cannot be made to think that this ,wanderer is a fellow we do not know2 nor ,launcelot1 nor another4 ,it is he1 the poet of whom we write4 ,it bears his imprint4 ,it bears his trade mark4 ,it is stamped with the image of the king4 ,he cannot hide from us in this3 ,his heart the love of ,beauty held as hides ,one gem most pure a casket of pure gold4 ,it was too rich a lesser thing to hold2 ,it was not large enough for aught besides4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,fame ,fame always lures ,youth4 ,perhaps later experience proves that it is indeed a hollow thing1 hardly worth striving for4 ,but to ,youth there is no goal that calls more insistently than ,fame4 ,youth and ,beauty and ,fame--how closely akin they are6 ,if ,beauty and ,fame keep him company1 ,youth is next the stars with delight4 ,and so it is natural that this young poet shall sing the song of ,fame with exuberant enthusiasm4 ,he says in ,the ,need to ,love3 ,and ,i have followed ,fame with less devotion1 ,and kept no real ambition but to see ,rise from the foam of ,nature's sunlit ocean ,my dream of palpable divinity4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,and while we are listening to the music of these human stars1 the music of the celestial spheres set down in human words1 let us catch again the poetic echo of that third line and let it linger long as we listen1 ,rise from the foam of ,nature's sunlit ocean1 and ,forget it not till the crowns are crumbled1 ,till the swords of the kings are rent with rust2 ,forget it not till the hills lie humbled1 ,and the ,springs of the seas run dust1 that1 as ,edwin ,markham sings1 this echo is the echo of the eternal poetic music4 ,with these wondrous lines he answers the question which he himself asks in ,fragments1 ,what is ,success8 ,out of the endless ore ,of deep desire to coin the utmost gold ,of passionate memory3 to have lived so well ,that the fifth moon1 when it swims up once more ,through orchard boughs where mating orioles build ,and apple trees unfold1 ,find not of that dear need that all things tell ,the heart unburdened nor the arms unfilled4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,joy comes next in our treatment of the outstanding singings of this singing poet1 and he himself has given us the connecting link in the following lines3 ,he has drained as well ,joy's perfumed bowl and cried as ,i have cried3 ,be ,fame their mistress whom ,love passes by4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,and thus smoothly we pass from ,fame to ,joy and hear him sing of this fourth high peak of ,youth4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,joy ,whatever he did1 whatever he sang1 whatever he lived1 this man swept all things else aside and plunged in over head4 ,he loved to swim and he loved to dive4 ,perhaps into his living and his writing he carried this athletic joy also1 and as he lived he lived to the full4 ,it seems so as one reads in ,i ,loved these impassioned lines3 ,from a boy ,i gloated on existence4 ,earth to me ,seemed all sufficient and my sojourn there ,one trembling opportunity for joy4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,and then one pauses to weep awhile1 and the lines grow dim as he reads them again to know that this man1 who so loved to live1 who gloated on existence1 who saw life as a trembling opportunity for ,joy1 must leave it so soon4 ,and yet he left it nobly4 ,again in ,an ,ode to ,antares he sings of ,joy3 ,what clamor importuning from every booth6 ,at ,earth's great market where ,joy is trafficked in ,buy while thy purse yet swells with golden ,youth6 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,kindly ,age1 ,age who had not lost his love1 always sings like that to ,youth2 always tells ,youth to live while he may1 play while the playworld is his4 ,every poet who has older grown1 from ,shakespeare to ,lowell1 and yet retained his love1 has told us this4 ,we expect it of older poets1 but here a young poet sees it all clearly2 that ,youth must buy ,joy while his purse is full with ,youth4 ,and ye who rob ,youth of playtime1 of ,joy1 ye capitalists1 ye money makers and life destroyers1 listen to this dead poet who yet lives in these words4 ,fathers1 mothers1 let childhood spend its all for ,joy while the purse of ,youth is full4 ,it will be empty after while and it shall never be filled again with ,youth4 ,so says the ,poet4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,love ,the discriminating reader of ,seeger soon sees1 however1 that1 while he sings as needs he must1 because of the springs that are within him bubbling over1 sings of ,youth1 and ,beauty1 and ,fame1 and ,joy1 yet he knows that these are not all of life4 ,he knows that there are higher things than these4 ,these higher things are ,love1 ,death1 ,god--what a trilogy6 ,love is all4 ,he is sure of this4 ,he is true to this4 ,romantic love he knows--love of comrade1 love of ,god4 ,in this same ,an ,ode to ,natural ,beauty his final conclusion is that ,love is best after all3 ,on any venture set1 but 'twas the first ,for ,beauty willed them1 yea whatever be ,the faults ,i wanted wings to rise above2 ,i am cheered yet to think how steadfastly ,i have been loyal to the love of ,love6 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,this is more than romantic love2 it is the love of ,love4 ,and lest this be not strong enough1 he sings in ,the ,need to ,love as great a song as man ever heard on this great theme3 ,the need to love that all the stars obey ,entered my heart and banished all beside4 ,bare were the gardens where ,i used to stray2 ,faded the flowers that one time satisfied4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,then1 not content1 he sets up an altar of poetry and dedicates it to ,love and lights a fire of worship there1 and leaves it not1 nor night nor day3 ,all that's not love is the dearth of my days1 ,the leaves of the volume with rubric unwrit1 ,the temple in times without prayer1 without praise1 ,the altar unset and the candle unlit4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,if ,love be not queen to him1 the palace is cold and barren2 the altar unset and the candle unlit ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,death ,like ,brooke1 a victim of the ,hun1 so ,seeger1 also a victim of the barbarian1 seemed to feel the constant presence of ,death1 an unseen guest at the ,feast of ,youth and ,joy and ,fame and ,love4 ,perhaps the war made these two imaginative poets think of ,death sooner than ,youth usually gives him heed4 ,but most men will think of ,death when they are face to face with the shadow day and night as were these soldier-crusading poets2 when they see him stalking in every trench1 in every wood1 on every hill and road1 and in every field and village4 ,but how bravely he spoke of ,death6-- ,learn to drive fear1 then1 from your heart4 ,if you must perish1 know1 ,o man1 ',tis an inevitable part ,of the predestined plan4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,and again in this same poem1 ,makatooh1 he sings of ,death3 ,guard that1 not bowed nor blanched with fear ,you enter1 but serene1 erect1 ,as you would wish most to appear ,to those you most respect4 ,so die1 as though your funeral ,ushered you through the doors that led ,into a stately banquet hall ,where heroes banqueted2 ,and it shall all depend therein ,whether you come as slave or lord1 ,if they acclaim you as their kin ,or spurn you from their board4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,what a challenge this is to all who must die in this war1 to all lads who are giving their lives heroically in ,god's great cause of liberty in his world--this challenge to die so that you may be welcomed into the fraternity of heroes6 ,without doubt ,seeger's best-known poem1 and one which illustrates also most strongly his attitude toward ,death1 is that poem entitled ,i ,have a ,rendezvous ,with ,death1 from which we quote3 ,i have a rendezvous with ,death ,at some disputed barricade2 ,when ,spring comes back with rustling shade ,and apple blossoms fill the air-- ,i have a rendezvous with ,death ,when ,spring brings back blue days and fair4 99 99 99 99 99 ,god knows1 'twere better to be deep ,pillowed in silk and scented down1 ,where ,love throbs out in blissful sleep1 ,pulse nigh to pulse1 and breath to breath1 ,where hushed awakenings are dear1444 ,but ,i've a rendezvous with ,death ,at midnight in some flaming town2 ,when ,spring trips north again this year1 ,and ,i to my pledged word am true1 ,i shall not fail that rendezvous4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,god ,from the lighter thoughts of ,youth1 ,joy1 ,fame1 ,beauty1 through the long1 long thoughts of ,youth2 through ,love and ,death it is not a long way to climb to ,god4 ,we would not expect this young poet to be thinking much in this direction1 but he does just the same4 ,i have even found those who say that he was not a ,god-man1 but these poems refute that slander on a dead man and poet4 ,i find him singing in ,the ,nympholept3 ,i think it was the same3 some piercing sense ,of ,deity's pervasive immanence1 ,the life that visible ,nature doth indwell ,grown great and near and all but palpable ,he might not linger but with winged strides ,like one pursued1 fled down the mountainsides4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,this reminds one instantly of the haunting ,christ of ,thompson's ,the ,hound of ,heaven4 ,and again in the presence of ,war's death the poet felt that other and greater presence without doubt1 as these words prove3 ,when to the last assault our bugles blow3 ,reckless of pain and peril we shall go1 ,heads high and hearts aflame and bayonets bare1 ,and we shall brave eternity as though ,eyes looked on us in which we would see fair-- ,one waited in whose presence we would wear1 ,even as a lover who would be well-seen1 ,our manhood faultless and our honor clean4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,and with magnificent acknowledgment of the divine plan of it all1 of life and war and all1 he sweeps that truly great poem1 ,the ,hosts1 to a swinging climax in its last tremendous stanza2 which1 fitting too1 shall be the closing lines of this chapter on our dead ,american1 martyred poet4 ,he first speaks of the marching columns of soldiers as ,big with the beauty of cosmic things4 ,mark how their columns surge6 ,with bayonets bare and flags unfurled1 ,they scale the summits of the world-- ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,and then3 ,there was a stately drama writ ,by the hand that peopled the earth and air ,and set the stars in the infinite ,and made night gorgeous and morning fair1 ,and all that had sense to reason knew ,that bloody drama must be gone through4 ,poems by ,alan ,seeger4 ,,english ,,poets ,,john ,,oxenham ,,alfred ,,noyes ,,john ,,masefield ,,robert ,,service ,,rupert ,,brooke ,illustration3 ,,john ,,oxenham4 ,v ,,john ,,oxenham ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from the following works ,the ,vision ,splendid1 ,all's ,well1 and ,the ,fiery ,cross ,published by ,george ,h4 ,doran ,company1 ,new ,york4 ,,who ,,makes ,,articulate ,,the ,,voice ,,of ,,war1 ,,peace1 ,,the ,,cross1 ,,the ,,christ4 ,in the first volume of ,the ,student in ,arms1 that widely read book of the war1 ,donald ,hankey has a chapter on ,the ,religion of the ,inarticulate1 in which he shows that the ,tommy who for so long has been accused of having no religion1 really has a very definite one4 ,he has a religion that embraces all the ,christian virtues1 such as love1 sacrifice1 brotherhood1 and comradeship1 but he has never connected these with either ,christ or the church4 ,his religion is the ,religion of the ,inarticulate4 ,hankey then shows that this war is articulating religion as never before4 ,john ,oxenham1 ,poet-,preacher1 is giving articulation to the voice of ,christianity--a voice ringing out from over and above the thunder of the guns1 the blare1 the flare1 the outcry1 the hurt1 the pain and anguish of the most awful war that earth has ever suffered4 ,some of us have been thinking of this war in terms of ,christian hope4 ,we have thought that we see in it a new ,calvary out of which shall come a new resurrection to the spiritual world4 ,we have dreamed that men are being redeemed through the sacrifice1 through the spirit of service and brotherhood thrust upon the world by war's supreme demands4 ,we have thought all of this1 but we have not been able to make it articulate4 ,now comes a poet to do it for us4 ,what magnificent hope sings out1 even in the titles that ,oxenham has selected for his books in these days of darkness1 anguish and lostness4 ,after his first book1 ,bees in ,amber1 comes that warm handclasp of strength3 that thrill of hope2 that word of a watchman in the night1 like a sentinel crying through the very title of his second book1 ,all's ,well4 ,then came ,the ,vision ,splendid1 and soon we are to have ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,the publishers were kind enough to let me examine this last book while it was still in the proof sheets4 ,it is the one great hope book of the war4 ,every mother and father who has a boy in the war1 every wife who has a husband1 every child who has a father will thrill with a new pride and a new dignity after reading ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,,war ,,and ,,its ,,voice ,no poet has voiced ,america's reasons for being in the war as has ,oxenham1 and nowhere does he do it better than in ,where ,are ,you ,going1 ,great-,heart8 the concluding stanza of which sums up compactly ,america's high purposes3 ,where are you going1 ,great-,heart8 ',to set all burdened peoples free2 ,to win for all ,god's liberty2 ,to 'stablish ,his sweet ,sovereignty4' ,god goeth with you1 ,great-,heart6 ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,to those who go to die in war the poet addresses himself in lines which he titles ,on ,eagle ,wings3 ,higher than most1 to you is given ,to live--or in ,his time1 to die2 ,so1 bear you as ,white ,knights of ,heaven-- ,the very flower of chivalry6 ,take ,him as ,pilot by your side1 ,and ',all is well' whate'er betide4 ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,if ,god be with you1 who can be against you8 is the echo that we hear going and coming behind these great ,christian lines4 ,indeed1 behind every poem that ,oxenham writes we can hear the echoes of some great scriptural word of promise1 or hope or faith or courage4 ,the ,christian1 as well as those who never saw the ,bible or a church1 will feel at home with this poet anywhere4 ,the advantage that the ,christian will have in reading him is that he will understand him better4 ,turning to those who stay at home and have lost loved ones1 with what sympathy and deep1 tender understanding does he write in ,to ,you ,who ,have ,lost4 ,you may almost see a great kindly father standing by your side1 his warm hand in yours as he sings3 ,i know6 ,i know6-- ,the ceaseless ache1 the emptiness1 the woe-- ,the pang of loss-- ,the strength that sinks beneath so sore a cross4 ',heedless and careless1 still the world wags on1 ,and leaves me broken1444 ,oh1 my son ,i my son6' ,yea--think of this6-- ,yea1 rather think on this6-- ,he died as few men get the chance to die-- ,fighting to save a world's morality4 ,he died the noblest death a man may die1 ,fighting for ,god1 and ,right1 and ,liberty-- ,and such a death is ,immortality4 ,all's ,well4 ,if those who have lost loved ones ,over ,there cannot be buoyed by that1 ,i know not what will buoy them1 what will comfort4 ,oxenham too gives us a picture of a battlefield where birds sing and roses bloom1 just as do ,service and several other poets who have been in the midst of the conflict4 ,we have become familiar with this picture1 but no writer yet has caught its full1 eternal meaning and pressed it down into three lines for the world as has this man2 in ,here1 ,there1 and ,everywhere3 ,man proposes--,god disposes2 ,yet our hope in ,him reposes ,who in war-time still makes roses4 ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,but this poet in his interpretation of war does not forget peace2 does not forget that it is coming2 does not forget that the world is hungry for it2 does not forget that it is the duty of the poets and the thinking men and women of the world not only to get ready for it1 but to lead the way to it4 ,,peace ,,and ,,its ,,voice ,in a remarkable poem called ,watchman6 ,what of the ,night8 we see this great heart standing sentinel on the walls of the world1 watching the midnight skies red with the blaze and glow of carnage3 ,watchman6 ,what of the night8 ,no light we see2 ,our souls are bruised and sickened with the sight ,of this foul crime against humanity4 ,the ,ways are dark--- ',i ,,see ,,the ,,morning ,,light6' 99 99 99 99 99 ,beyond the war-clouds and the reddened ways1 ,i see the promise of the ,coming ,days6 ,i see ,his sun rise1 new charged with grace1 ,earth's tears to dry and all her woes efface6 ,christ lives6 ,christ loves6 ,christ rules6 ,no more shall ,might1 ,though leagued with all the forces of the ,night1 ,ride over ,right4 ,no more shall ,wrong ,the world's gross agonies prolong4 ,who waits ,his time shall surely see ,the triumph of ,his ,constancy2 ,when1 without let1 or bar1 or stay1 ,the coming of ,his ,perfect ,day ,shall sweep the ,powers of ,night away2 ,and ,faith replumed for nobler flight1 ,and ,hope aglow with radiance bright1 ,and ,love in loveliness bedight ,,shall ,,greet ,,the ,,morning ,,light4 ,all's ,well4 ,then1 as is most fair and logical1 the poet tells us how we are to build again after peace comes4 ,we must needs know that4 ,the newspapers are full of a certain popular move--and success to it--to rebuild the destroyed cities of ,france and ,belgium4 ,but the rebuilding that the poet speaks of in ,the ,winnowing is a deeper thing4 ,it is a spiritual rebuilding without which there is no permanent peace in the world and no permanent safety for the material world4 ,how shall we start1 ,lord1 to build life again1 ,fairer and sweeter1 and freed from its pain8 ',build ye in ,me and your building shall be ,builded for ,time and ,eternity4' ,all's ,well4 ,there is the answer to the world's cry in short1 sharp1 succinct lines2 compact as a biblical phrase2 and as meaningful4 ,hearken it1 ye world6 ,only in ,him can the new spiritual world be built for ,time and ,eternity4 ,and only to those who so believe and hold shall the world belong henceforth4 ,at least so says our poet3 ,to whom shall the world henceforth belong ,and who shall go up and possess it8 which question he himself answers in the same verse3 ,to the ,men of ,good ,fame ,who everything claim-- ,this world and the next--in their ,master's great name-- ,to these shall the world henceforth belong1 ,and they shall go up and possess it2 ,overmuch1 overlong1 has the world suffered wrong1 ,we are here by ,god's help to redress it4 ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,and finally in this fight for peace he does not forget prayer1 and in ,the ,prayer ,immortal1 which is introduced1 as are so many of ,oxenham's poems1 by a phrase from the ,bible1 ,thy kingdom come1 thy will be done1 he admonishes those who seek peace3 ,so--to your knees--,and1 with your heart and soul1 pray ,god ,that wars may cease1 ,and earth1 by ,his good will1 ,through these rough ways1 find peace6 ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,,the ,,cross ,,and ,,its ,,voice ,the voice of the cross of ,calvary is being heard this day of war as it has never been heard before4 ,the world is resonant with its message4 ,every soldier1 every nation1 every home1 every mother and father and child and wife who has suffered because of this war1 shall henceforth understand the ,christ and his cross the better4 ,all through this writer's interpretations of the war we find the cross to the fore4 ,to him the cross symbolizes the war4 ,this war is the cross in a deep and abiding sense4 ,in ,through the ,valley he says3 ,and there of ,his radiant company1 ,full many a one ,i see1 ,who has won through the ,valley of ,shadows ,to the larger liberty4 ,even there in the grace of the heavenly place1 ,it is joy to meet mine own1 ,and to know that not one but has valiantly won1 ,by the way of the ,cross1 his crown4 ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,thank ,god for that hope6 ,thank ,god for that word6 ,in ,the ,ballad of ,jim ,baxter this same thought is more vividly and strongly set forth4 ,it is the story of one type of ,german cruelty of which we have heard in the war dispatches several times and that have been confirmed on the spot2 the story of the ,germans nailing men to crosses4 ,jim ,baxter suffered this experience3 ,when ,jim came to1 he found himself ,nailed to a cross of wood1 ,just like the ,christs you find out there ,on every country road4 ,he wondered dully if he'd died1 ,and so1 become a ,christ2 ',perhaps1' he thought1 'all men are ,christs ,when they are crucified4' ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,and in this homely lad's homely way of putting his cruel experience who knows but that there may be such truth as yet we cannot see in the dark chaos of war8 ,,the ,,christ ,,and ,,his ,,voice ,it isn't a far step from the cross to the ,christ of the cross1 and in this man's poetry the two mingle and commingle so closely that one overlaps the other4 ,but always these two things stand out--the cross and the ,christ4 ,and in the new volume1 ,the ,fiery ,cross1 one finds many pages devoted to this great thought alone4 ,of the tenderness of the ,christ he speaks most sympathetically1 having in mind again the lads that war has taken4 ,in ,the ,master's ,garden hear him3 ,and some1 with wondrous tenderness1 ,to ,his lips ,he gently pressed1 ,and fervent blessings breathed on them1 ,and laid them in ,his breast4 ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,and then of his sweetness1 referring again to the ,jim ,baxter1 we have a wonderful picture of the oft mentioned ,comrade in ,white1 who is so real to the wounded soldiers3 ,his face was wondrous pitiful1 ,but still more wondrous sweet2 ,and ,jim saw holes just like his own ,in ,his white hands and feet2 ,but ,his look it was that won ,jim's heart1 ,it was so wondrous sweet4 ',christ6'--said the dying man once more1 ,with accent reverent1 ,he had never said it so before1 ,but he knew now what ,christ meant-- ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,oxenham has great faith in humanity4 ,from time to time we find him expressing man's kinship with the stars and with ,god and ,christ4 ,thou hast made him a little lower than the angels this poet takes seriously1 thank ,god4 ,this word from the ,book means something to him4 ,and so it is in a poem called ,in ,every ,man we see him finding ,christ in every man3 ,in every soul of all mankind ,somewhat of ,christ ,i find1 ,somewhat of ,christ--and ,thee2 ,for in each one there surely dwells ,that something which most surely spells ,life's immortality4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and so1 for love of ,christ--and ,thee1 ,i will not cease to seek and find1 ,in all mankind1 ,that hope of immortality ,which dwells so sacramentally ,in ,christ--and ,thee4 ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,he feels ,christ's eternity so much that he cries out for him continually and will not be satisfied without him4 ,he knows that he must have the ,christ if he wants to grow great enough to meet life's demands4 ,in a poem1 ,a ,prayer for ,enlargement1 which ,i quote in full because of its brevity1 one feels this dependence3 ,shrive me of all my littleness and sin6 ,open your great heart wide6 ,open it wide and take me in1 ,for the sake of ,christ who died6 ,was ,i grown small and strait8-- ,then shalt ,thou make me wide4 ,through the love of ,christ who died1 ,thou--thou shalt make me great4 ,the ,fiery ,cross4 ,to the ,christian the following quotation will mean much4 ,in it we hear the echo of ,masefield's ,the ,everlasting ,mercy2 or of that marvelous story of the regeneration of a human soul in ,tolstoy's ,the ,resurrection2 an old-fashioned conversion of a human being2 a ,paul's on the road to ,damascus experience4 ,and the tragedy is that just about the time that the world of literature is being fascinated with this story of ,rebirth the church seems to be forgetting it4 ,it is told in the first verse of ,ex ,tenebris--,the ,lay of the ,king ,who ,rose ,again3 ,take away my rage6 ,take away my sin6 ,strip me all bare ,of that ,i did wear-- ,the foul rags1 the base rags1 ,the rude and the mean6 ,strip me1 yea strip me ,right down to my skin6 ,strip me all bare ,of that ,i have been6 ,then wash me in water1 ,in fair running water1 ,wash me without1 ,and wash me within1 ,in fair running water1 ,in fresh running water1 ,wash me1 ah wash me1 ,and make me all clean6 --,clean of the soilure ,and clean of the sin1 --,clean of the soul-crushing ,sense of defilure1 --,clean of the old self1 ,and clean of the sin6 ,in fair running water1 ,in fresh running water1 ,in sun-running water1 ,all sweet and all pure1 ,wash me1 ah wash me1 ,and ,i shall be clean4 ,the ,fiery ,cross ,,god ,,and ,,his ,,voice ,from the voice of ,christ and the voice of the cross it is not far to hear the voice of ,god either in life or in ,john ,oxenham's books4 ,behind the cross and behind the ,christ stands the ,father1 and a treatment of this great poet's writings would not be complete if one did not quote a few excerpts from his writings to show that ,god was ever present keeping watch above his own4 ,the first note we catch of the ,father's voice is in ,the ,call of the ,dead3 ,one way there is--one only-- ,whereby ye may stand sure2 ,one way by which ye may understand ,all foes1 and ,life's ,high ,ways command1 ,and make your building sure4--- ,take ,god once more as ,counselor1 ,work with ,him1 hand in hand1 ,build surely1 in ,his ,grace and ,power1 ,the nobler things that shall endure1 ,and1 having done all--,,stand6 ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,and as the poet has walked the streets of ,america and elsewhere and has seen the service flag1 which in ,each window shrines a name1 he has felt ,god everywhere4 ,in ,the ,leaves of the ,golden ,book he comforts those who mourn3 ,god will gather all these scattered ,leaves into ,his ,golden ,book1 ,torn and crumpled1 soiled and battered1 ,he will heal them with a look4 ,not one soul of them has perished2 ,no man ever yet forsook ,wife and home1 and all he cherished1 ,and ,god's purpose undertook1 ,but he met his full reward ,in the ',well ,done' of his ,lord6 ,the ,vision ,splendid4 ,so it is that over and over we hear this note1 wrung from the experiences of war1 that those who give up all1 to die for ,god's plan1 to take the cross in suffering that the world may be better2 these shall have life eternal4 ,and who dares to dispute it8 ,in ,our ,share we are admonished that we must find ,god anew3 ,heads of sham gold and feet of crumbling clay1 ,if we would build anew and build to stay1 ,we must find ,god again1 ,and go ,his way4 ,all's ,well4 ,oxenham does not claim to fully understand the world cataclysm any more than some of the rest of us4 ,if we all had to understand1 we might find ourselves ineligible for the ,kingdom1 but the ,book says everywhere1 ,he that believeth on me shall have everlasting life4 ,and we can believe whether we understand or no4 ,so voices the poet in ,god's ,handwriting3 ,he writes in characters too grand ,for our short sight to understand2 ,we catch but broken strokes1 and try ,to fathom all the mystery ,of withered hopes1 of deaths1 of life1 ,the endless war1 the useless strife1-- ,but there1 with larger1 clearer sight1 ,we shall see this-- ,,his ,,way ,,was ,,right4 ,all's ,well1 ,what better way to close this brief interpretation of our poet in this day of darkness and hate and hurt and war and woe and want1 of seeing hopelessness and helplessness1 than with these heartening lines from ,god ,is3 ,god is2 ,god sees2 ,god loves2 ,god knows4 ,and ,right is ,right2 ,and ,right is ,might4 ,in the full ripeness of ,his ,time1 ,all these ,his vast prepotencies ,shall round their grace-work to the prime ,of full accomplishment1 ,and we shall see the plan sublime ,of ,his beneficent intent4 ,live on in hope6 ,press on in faith6 ,love conquers all things1 ,even ,death4 ,all's ,well4 ,illustration3 ,,alfred ,,noyes4 ,,vi ,,alfred ,,noyes ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes1 two volumes1 copyright1 #aiac1 by the ,frederick ,a4 ,stokes ,company1 ,new ,york4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,childhood1 ,,of ,,manhood1 ,,christhood1 ,,and ,,godhood ,if one wants to find the tenderest1 most completely sympathetic study of childhood1 one that finds echo not only in the heart of the grown-up1 but in the heart of children the world over1 he must this day go to ,alfred ,noyes4 ,if you want proof of this1 read ,the ,forest of ,wild ,thyme or ,the ,flower of ,old ,japan to your children and watch them sit with open mouths and open hearts to hear these wonder fairy tales4 ,and1 further1 if you are too grown-up to want to read ,noyes for his complete sympathy with childhood1 more universal even than our beloved ,riley2 and you want a poet that challenges you to a more vigorous manhood1 a poet who calls man to his highest and deepest virility1 read ,noyes4 ,or1 if you happen to need a clearer1 firmer insight into the man of ,galilee and ,calvary1 read ,noyes2 and1 finally1 if you want firmer1 more rocklike foundations to plant your faith in ,god upon1 read ,noyes1 for herein one finds all of these4 ,from childhood to ,godhood is1 indeed1 a wide range for a poet to take1 and yet they are akin4 ,as another poet has said1 none less than ,edwin ,markham1 ,know man and you will know the deep of ,god4 ,and as ,noyes himself says in the introduction to ,the ,forest of ,wild ,thyme3 ,husband1 there was a happy day1 ,long ago in love's young ,may1 ,when1 with a wild-flower in your hand ,you echoed that dead poet's cry-- ',little flower1 but if ,i could understand6' ,and you saw it had roots in the depth of the sky1 ,and there in that smallest bud lay furled ,the secret and meaning of all the world4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and when we know that the mother was talking about ,little ,peterkin1 their lost baby1 we know that she meant that in a little child there lay furled ,the secret and meaning of all the world4 ,and so1 beginning with childhood1 through those intermediate steps of manhood and ,christhood1 with ,noyes leading us1 as he literally leads the little tots through the mysteries of ,old ,japan and the ,wild ,thyme1 let us go from tree to tree1 and flower to flower1 and hope to hope1 and pain to pain1 up to ,god1 from whence we came4 ,it is a clear sweet pathway that he leads us4 ,,childhood ,,and ,,its ,,glory ,noyes assumes something that we all know for truth3 that ,grown-ups do not understand childhood4 ,but after reading this sweet poet we know that he does understand2 and we thank ,god for him4 ,in ,part ,,ii of ,the ,forest of ,wild ,thyme one sees this clearly4 ,o1 grown-ups cannot understand1 ,and grown-ups never will1 ,how short's the way to fairyland ,across the purple hill3 ,they smile3 their smile is very bland1 ,their eyes are wise and chill2 ,and yet--at just a child's command-- ,the world's an ,eden still4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,thank the stars that watch over us in love that the great-hearted poets1 and the children of the world--at least those little ones that a half-way ,christian civilization has not robbed of childhood--know that ,the world's an ,eden still4 ,from the prelude to ,the ,flower of ,old ,japan comes that same note1 like a bluebird in springtime1 that note of belief1 of trust1 of hope3 ,do you remember the blue stream2 ,the bridge of pale bamboo2 ,the path that seemed a twisted dream ,where everything came true2 ,the purple cheery-trees2 the house ,with jutting eaves below the boughs2 ,the mandarins in blue1 ,with tiny tapping1 tilted toes1 ,with curious curved mustachios8 99 99 99 99 99 ,ah1 let us follow1 follow far ,beyond the purple seas2 ,beyond the rosy foaming bar1 ,the coral reef1 the trees1 ,the land of parrots and the wild ,that rolls before the fearless child ,in ancient mysteries3 ,onward1 and onward if we can1 ,to ,old ,japan1 to ,old ,japan4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and ,the ,forest of ,wild ,thyme is full of the echos of fairy tales and childhood rhymes heard the world over4 ,little ,peterkin1 who went with the children to ,old ,japan1 is dead now3 ,come1 my brother pirates1 ,i am tired of play2 ,come and look for ,peterkin1 little brother ,peterkin1 ,our merry little comrade that the fairies took away4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and so1 they go to the last place they saw him1 the old ,god's ,acre1 and fall asleep amid the wild thyme blooming there4 ,as they dream the thyme grows to the size of trees1 and they wander about in the forest hunting for ,peterkin4 ,as they hunted they found out who killed ,cock ,robin4 ,they appeal to ,little ,boy ,blue to help them hunt for ,peterkin3 ,little ,boy ,blue1 you are gallant and brave1 ,there was never a doubt in those clear1 bright eyes4 ,come1 challenge the grim1 dark ,gates of the ,grave ,as the skylark sings to those infinite skies6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,the ,king of ,fairyland gives command to ,pease-,blossom3 ,and cried1 ,pease-blossom1 ,mustard-,seed6 ,you know the old command2 ,well2 these are little children2 you must lead them on to ,peterkin6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,they even discovered1 as they were led on by ,pease-,blossom and ,mustard- ,seed1 how fairies were born3 ,men upon earth ,bring us to birth ,gently at even and morn6 ,when as brother and brother ,they greet one another ,and smile--then a fairy is born6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and1 too1 they found why fairies die3 ,but at each cruel word ,upon earth that is heard1 ,each deed of unkindness or hate1 ,some fairy must pass ,from the games in the grass ,and steal through the terrible ,gate4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and they learned what it took to make a rose3 ',what is there hid in the heart of a rose1 ,mother-mine8' ',ah1 who knows1 who knows1 who knows8 ,a man that died on a lonely hill ,may tell you perhaps1 but none other will1 ,little child4' ',what does it take to make a rose1 ,mother-mine8' ',the ,god that died to make it knows4 ,it takes the world's eternal wars1 ,it takes the moon and all the stars1 ,it takes the might of heaven and hell ,and the everlasting ,love as well1 ,little child4' ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and they heard the old tales over3 ,and ',see-,saw2 ,margery ,daw1' we heard a rollicking shout1 ,as the swing boats hurtled over our heads to the tune of the roundabout2 ,and ',little ,boy ,blue1 come blow up your horn1' we heard the showmen cry1 ,and ',dickery ,dock1 ,i'm as good as a clock1' we heard the swings reply4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,then at last they found their little brother ,peterkin in ,the ,babe of ,bethlehem4 ,and if this were not enough to make the reader see how completely and wholly and sympathetically ,noyes understood the child heart1 hear this word from his great soul3 ,kind little eyes that ,i love1 ,eyes forgetful of mine1 ,in a dream ,i am bending above ,your sleep and you open and shine2 ,and ,i know as my own grow blind ,with a lonely prayer for your sake1 ,he will hear--even me--little eyes that were kind1 ,god bless you1 asleep or awake6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,,manhood ,,and ,,its ,,vigor ,virility like unto steel is the very mark of ,noyes4 ,but as this study of ,childhood has shown1 it is a virility touched with tenderness4 ,as ,bayard ,taylor sings3 ,the bravest are the tenderest1 ,the loving are the daring6 ,and this is ,noyes4 ,noyes knew ,manhood1 he sang it1 he challenged it too1 he crowned it in ,drake2 he placed it a little lower than the gods4 ,hear this supreme word1 enough to lift man to the skies3 ,where1 what a dreamer yet1 in spite of all1 ,is man1 that splendid visionary child ,who sent his fairy beacon through the dusk6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,this tribute to ,marlow--how eaglelike it is6 ,how suggestive of heights1 and mountain peaks and blue skies and far-flung stars6 ,but he who dared the thunder-roll1 ,whose eagle-wings could soar1 ,buffeting down the clouds of night1 ,to beat against the ,light of ,light1 ,that great ,god-blinded eagle-soul1 ,we shall not see him more6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,then he makes us one with all that is granite and flower and high and holy in ,the ,loom of the ,years3 ,one with the flower of a day1 one with the withered moon1 ,one with the granite mountains that melt into the noon1 ,one with the dream that triumphs beyond the light of the spheres1 ,we come from the ,loom of the ,weaver1 that weaves the ,web of the years4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,from ,drake again this ringing word3 ,his face was like a king's face as he spake1 ,for sorrows that strike deep reveal the deep2 ,and through the gateways of a ragged wound ,sometimes a ,god will drive his chariot wheels ,from some deep heaven within the hearts of men6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,,christhood ,,and ,,its ,,calvary ,from childhood to manhood through ,christhood to ,godhood is a progression that ,noyes sees clearly and makes us see as clearly4 ,somehow ,christ is very real to ,noyes4 ,he is not a historical character far off4 ,he is the ,christ of here and now2 the ,christ that meets our every need2 as real as a dearly beloved friend next door to us4 ,no poet sees the ,christ more clearly4 ,first he caught the meanings of ,christ's gospel of new birth4 ,he was not confused on that4 ,he knows3 ,the task is hard to learn ,while all the songs of ,spring return ,along the blood and sing4 ,yet hear--from her deep skies1 ,how ,art1 for all your pain1 still cries1 ,ye must be born again6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and who could put his worship more beautifully than the poet does in ,the ,symbolist8 ,help me to seek that unknown land6 ,i kneel before the shrine4 ,help me to feel the hidden hand ,that ever holdeth mine4 ,i kneel before the ,word1 ,i kneel ,before the ,cross of flame4 ,i cry1 as through the gloom ,i steal1 ,the glory of the ,name4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,christ's face1 and his life experiences1 here and there slip out of the lines of this ,english poet with an insistence that cannot but win the heart of the world1 especially the heart of the ,christian4 ,here and there in the most unexpected places his living presence stands before you1 with1 to use another of the poet's own lines1 ,words that would make the dead arise1 as in ,vicisti1 ,galilee3 ,poor1 scornful ,lilliputian souls1 ,and are ye still too proud ,to risk your little aureoles ,by kneeling with the crowd8 99 99 99 99 99 ,and while ye scoff1 on every side ,great hints of ,him go by1--,souls that are hourly crucified ,on some new ,calvary6 99 99 99 99 99 ,in flower and dust1 in chaff and grain1 ,he binds ,himself and dies6 ,we live by ,his eternal pain1 ,his hourly sacrifice4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and while ye scoff from shore to shore ,from sea to moaning sea1 ',eloi1 eloi1' goes up once more1 ',lama sabachthani6' ,the heavens are like a scroll unfurled1 ,the writing flames above-- ,this is the ,king of all the ,world ,upon ,his ,cross of ,love6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and there in the very midst of ,drake1 that poem of a great sea fighter1 comes this quatrain unexpectedly1 showing the ,christ always in the background of the poet's mind4 ,he uses the ,christ eagerly as a figure1 as a help to his thought4 ,he always puts the ,christ and his cross to the fore3 ,whence came the prentice carpenter whose voice ,hath shaken kingdoms down1 whose menial gibbet ,rises triumphant o'er the wreck of ,empires ,and stretches out its arms amongst the ,stars8 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,then in ,the ,old ,skeptic we hear these of the ,christ in the concluding lines3 ,i will go back to my home and look at the wayside flowers1 ,and hear from the wayside cabin the kind old hymns again1 ,where ,christ holds out ,his arms in the quiet evening hours1 ,and the light of the chapel porches broods on the peaceful lane4 ,and there ,i shall hear men praying the deep old foolish prayers1 ,and there ,i shall see once more1 the fond old faith confessed1 ,and the strange old light on their faces who hear as a blind man hears-- ',come unto me1 ye weary1 and ,i will give you rest4' ,i will go back and believe in the deep old foolish tales1 ,and pray the simple prayers that ,i learned at my mother's knee1 ,where the ,sabbath tolls its peace1 through the breathless mountain-vales1 ,and the sunset's evening hymn hallows the listening sea4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,,godhood ,,at ,,last ,,and ,,surely ,he finds ,god4 ,there is no uncertainty about it4 ,from childhood to ,godhood has the poet come1 and we have come with him4 ,it has been a triumphant journey upward4 ,but we have not been afraid4 ,even the blinding light of ,god's face has not made us tremble4 ,we have learned to know him through this climb upward and upward to his throne4 ,at first it was uncertain4 ,the poet had to challenge us to one great end in ,the ,paradox3 ,but one thing is needful2 and ye shall be true ,to yourself and the goal and the ,god that ye seek2 ,yea1 the day and the night shall requite it to you ,if ye love one another1 if your love be not weak6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,for he knew the heart hunger for ,god that was in every human breast3 ,i am full-fed1 and yet ,i hunger6 ,who set this fiercer famine in my maw8 ,who set this fiercer hunger in my heart8 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,from ,drake comes that scintillating line3 ,a scribble of ,god's finger in the sky2 and an admonition to the preacher3 ,thou art ,god's minister1 not ,god's oracle6 ,nor did he forget that man1 in his search for ,god1 is1 after all1 but man1 and weak6 ,so from ,tales of a ,mermaid ,tavern3 444 and of that other ,ocean ,where all men sail so blindly1 and misjudge ,their friends1 their charts1 their storms1 their stars1 their ,god6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,even like unto ,bo'sin ,bill1 who was and is a prevalent type1 but not a serious type--that man who claims to be an atheist1 but in times of stress1 like unto us all1 turns to ,god4 ,and what humorous creatures we are6 ,enough to make ,god smile1 if he did not love us so much3 ,but our bo'sin ,bill was an atheist still ,ex-cept--sometimes--in the dark6 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and again from ,the ,paradox3 ,flashing forth as a flame1 ,the unnameable ,name1 ,the ineffable ,word1 ,i am the ,lord6 ,i am the ,end to which the whole world strives3 ,therefore are ye girdled with a wild desire and shod ,with sorrow2 for among you all no soul ,shall ever cease1 or sleep1 or reach its goal ,of union and communion with the ,whole ,or rest content with less than being ,god4 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,and thus we find ,god1 with ,noyes4 ,and ,i have saved for the last quotation one from ,the ,origin of ,life1 which the poet says is ,written in answer to certain scientific theories4 ,i save it for the last because1 strangely1 it sums up all the journey that we have passed through1 from childhood to ,god-hood3 ,watched the great hills like clouds arise and set1 ,and one--named ,olivet2 ,when you have seen as a shadow passing away1 ,one child clasp hands and pray2 ,when you have seen emerge from that dark mire ,one martyr ringed with fire2 ,or1 from that ,nothingness1 by special grace ,one woman's love-lit face4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,dare you re-kindle then1 ,one faith for faithless men1 ,and say you found1 on that dark road you trod1 ,in the beginning1 ,god8 ,collected ,poems by ,alfred ,noyes4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,masefield4 ,,vii ,,john ,,masefield1 ,,poet ,,for ,,the ,,pulpit ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from the following works3 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street1 ,salt ,water ,poems and ,ballads1 and ,good ,friday1 published by ,the ,macmillan ,company1 ,new ,york4 ,to climb is to achieve4 ,we like to see men achieve2 and the harder that achievement is1 the more we thrill to it4 ,for that reason we all have a hope to climb a ,shasta1 or a ,whitney1 or a ,hood to its whitest peak1 and glory in the achievement4 ,and because of this human delight in the climb we thrill to see a man climb out of sin1 or out of difficulty1 or out of defeat to triumph4 ,from bar-boy to poet is a great achievement1 a great climb1 or leap1 or lift1 whichever figure you may prefer1 but that is exactly what ,john ,masefield did4 ,perhaps ,hutton's figure may describe it better--,the ,leap to ,god4 ,at least ten years ago ,john ,masefield1 a wanderer on the face of the earth1 found himself in ,new ,york city without friends and without means1 and it was not to him an unusual thing to accept the position of bar-boy in a ,new ,york saloon4 ,this particular profession has within its scope the duties of wiping the beer bottles1 sweeping the floor1 and other menial tasks4 ,and now ,john ,masefield has within recent months come to ,new ,york city to be the lauded and feted4 ,newspaper reporters met him as his boat landed1 eager for his every word2 ,carnegie ,hall was crowded to hear him read from his own poetry2 and his journey across the country was just a great triumph from ,new ,york to ,san ,francisco4 ,something had happened in those ten years4 ,this man had achieved4 ,this poet had climbed to ,god4 ,this man had experienced the ,soul's ,leap to ,god4 ,he had found that ,man of all men who once said1 ,if ,i be lifted up1 ,i will draw all men unto me4 ,he always lifts men out of nothing into the glory of the greatest achievement4 ,yes1 something had happened in those ten years4 ,and the things that had happened in those ten years are perfectly apparent in his writings if one follow them from the beginning to the end4 ,and the things that had happened ,i shall trace through this poet's writings from the first1 boyhood verses of ,salt ,water ,ballads to ,good ,friday2 and therein lies the secret2 and incidentally therein lies some of the most thrilling human touches1 vivid illustrations for the preacher2 some of the most intensely interesting religious experiences that any biography ever revealed consciously or unconsciously4 ,i4 ,,the ,,soul ,,psychology ,,of ,,his ,,youth ,,in ,,salt ,,water ,,ballads ,one may search these ,salt ,water ,ballads through from the opening line of ,consecration to ,the ,song ,at ,parting and find no faint suggestion of that deep religious glory of ,the ,everlasting ,mercy4 ,this book was written1 even as ,masefield says1 in my boyhood2 all of it in my youth4 ,he has not caught the deeper meaning of life yet--the spiritual meaning--although he has caught the social meaning1 just as ,markham has caught it4 #a4 ,social ,consciousness ,even in ,consecration we hear the challenging ring of a young voice who has wandered over the face of the earth and has taken his place with the ,outcast1 has cast his lot with the sailor1 the stoker1 the tramp4 ,not the ruler for me1 but the ranker1 the tramp of the road1 ,the slave with the sack on his shoulders pricked on with the goad1 ,the man with too weighty a burden1 too weary a load4 ,others may sing of the wine and the wealth1 and the mirth1 ,the portly presence of potentates goodly in girth2 ,mine be the dirt and the dross1 the dust1 and the scum of the earth6 99 99 99 99 99 ,mine be a handful of ashes1 a mouthful of mould4 ,of the maimed1 of the halt and the blind in the rain and the cold-- ,of these shall my songs be fashioned1 my tales be told4 ,amen4 ,salt ,water ,poems and ,ballads4 ,and it is a most fascinating story to see him climb from his boyhood1 purely social1 sympathetic interest in the outcast to that higher1 that highest social consciousness1 vitalized with religion4 ,here1 seems it to me1 that those who possess true social consciousness must come at last if they do their most effective work for the social regeneration of the world4 ,many have tremendous social consciousness1 but no ,christ4 ,christ himself is the very pulse beat of the social regeneration4 ,without him it must fail4 ,one feels1 even here in his youth poems1 however1 a promise of that deeper ,masefield that later finds his soul in ,the ,everlasting ,mercy4 #b4 ,faith in ,immortality ,in ,rest ,her ,soul1 these haunting lines with that expression of a deep faith found in ,all that dies of her1 we find a ray of light1 which slants through a small window of the man that is to be3 ,on the black velvet covering her eyes ,let the dull earth be thrown2 ,her's is the mightier silence of the skies1 ,and long1 quiet rest alone4 ,over the pure1 dark1 wistful eyes of her1 ,o'er all the human1 all that dies of her1 ,gently let flowers be strown4 ,salt ,water ,poems and ,ballads4 ,but most of these ballads1 as their title suggests1 are nothing more than the very sea foam of which they speak1 and whose tale they tell2 as compared with that later1 deeper verse of ,christian hope and regeneration4 ,and then pass those ten years2 ten years following the period of ,the ,salt ,water ,ballads2 and ten years following the time when he was a bar-boy in ,new ,york2 ten years in which he climbs from a simple social consciousness to a social consciousness that has the heart beat of ,christ in its every line4 ,the poems he writes in this period are all of the ,christ4 ,good ,friday1 perhaps the strongest poem dealing with this great day in ,christ's life1 is full of a close knowledge of the spirit of the ,man of ,galilee4 ,but it is in ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and not ,the ,story of a ,round ,house that we find ,masefield at his big best1 battering at the very doors of eternity with the fist of a giant and the tender love of a woman1 and the plea of a penitent sinner4 ,something had happened to ,masefield in those ten years4 ,a man's entire life had been revolutionized2 and his poetry with it4 ,he still feels the want and need of the world1 and the social injustice2 but he has found the cure4 ,in a word1 he has been converted4 ,i do not care whether or no ,masefield means to tell his own story in ,the ,everlasting ,mercy1 but ,i do know that he tells1 in spite of himself1 a story that fits curiously into1 and marvelously explains1 the strange revolution and change in his own life from ,salt ,water ,ballads to ,good ,friday4 ,,ii4 ,,conversion ,it is an old-fashioned ,methodist conversion of which he tells1 which links itself up with the ,new ,testament gospel of the regeneration of a human soul in such a fascinating way that it gives those of us who preach this gospel an impelling1 modern1 dramatic putting of the old1 old story1 that will thrill our congregations and grip the hearts of men who know not the ,christ4 #a4 ,conviction of ,sin ,saul ,kane was an amateur prizefighter4 ,he and his friend ,bill have a fight in the opening lines of the tale1 and ,saul wins4 ,this victory is followed by the usual debauch1 which lasts until all the drunken crowd are asleep on the floor of the ,lion4 ,no ,russian novelist1 nor a ,dostoievesky1 nor another1 ever dared such realism as ,masefield has given us in his picture of this night's sin4 ,he makes sin all that it is--black and hideous3 ,from three long hours of gin and smokes1 ,and two girls' breath and fifteen blokes1 ,a warmish night and windows shut ,the room stank like a fox's gut4 ,the heat1 and smell1 and drinking deep ,began to stun the gang to sleep4 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,but this was too much for ,saul ,kane4 ,he had still enough decency left to be ashamed4 ,he wanted air4 ,he went to a window and threw it open3 ,i opened window wide and leaned ,out of that pigsty of the fiend1 ,and felt a cool wind go like grace ,about the sleeping market-place4 ,the clock struck three1 and sweetly1 slowly1 ,the bells chimed1 ,holy1 ,holy1 ,holy2 ,and in a second's pause there fell ,the cold note of the chapel bell1 ,and then a cock crew flapping wings1 ,and summat made me think of things6 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,there it is3 sin1 and conviction of sin4 ,perhaps he thought of another man who had virtually betrayed the ,christ1 and the cock crew and made that other think o' things4 ,then came the reaction from that conviction2 the battle against that same conviction that he must give up sin and surrender to the ,christ2 and a terrific battle it is1 and a terrific description of that battle ,masefield gives us1 lightninglike in its vividness until there comes the little woman of ,god1 ,miss ,bourne 7a deaconess1 if you please71 who has always known the better man in ,saul1 who has followed him with her ,christly love like ,the ,hound of ,heaven4 ,and how tenderly1 yet how insistently1 how pleadingly she speaks3 ',saul ,kane1' she said1 'when next you drink1 ,do me the gentleness to think ,that every drop of drink accursed ,makes ,christ within you die of thirst2 ,that every dirty word you say ,is one more flint upon ,his way1 ,another thorn about ,his head1 ,another mock by where ,he tread2 ,another nail another cross2 ,all that you are is that ,christ's loss4' ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,these searching words were beyond defeat4 ,they went home to his already convicted heart and mind like arrows4 ,they hurt4 ,they cut4 ,they awakened4 ,they called4 ,they pierced4 ,they pounded with giant fists4 ,they lashed like spiked whips4 ,they burned like a soul on fire4 ,they clamored1 and they whispered like a mother's love1 and at last his heart opened3 #b4 ,forgiveness ,i know the very words ,i said1 ,they bayed like bloodhounds in my head4 ',the water's going out to sea ,and there's a great moon calling me2 ,but there's a great sun calls the moon1 ,and all ,god's bells will carol soon ,for joy and glory1 and delight ,of some one coming home to-night4' ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,and then came the consciousness that he was done with sin forever3 ,i knew that ,i had done with sin1 ,i knew that ,christ had given me birth ,to brother all the souls on earth1 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 which was followed by two glories--the ,glory of the ,lighted ,mind and the ,glory of the ,lighted ,soul4 ,i think that perhaps in our preaching on conversion we make too little of the regeneration of the mind4 ,masefield does not miss one whit of a complete regeneration4 #c4 ,the ,joy of ,conversion ,o glory of the lighted mind4 ,how dead ,i'd been1 how dumb1 how blind6 ,the station brook to my new eyes ,was babbling out of ,paradise1 ,the waters rushing from the rain ,were singing1 ',christ has risen again6' ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,and then the soul glory3 ,o glory of the lighted ,soul4 ,the dawn came up on ,bradlow ,knoll1 ,the dawn with glittering on the grasses1 ,the dawn which pass and never passes4 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,but that wasn't all4 ,masefield knows that the other self must be completely eradicated1 so he makes ,saul ,kane change his environment entirely4 ,he goes to the country4 ,he plows1 and as he plows he learns the lesson of the soil and cries3 ,o ,jesus1 drive the coulter deep ,to plow my living man from sleep4 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,and more word from ,christ as he plowed3 ,i knew that ,christ was there with ,callow1 ,that ,christ was standing there with me1 ,that ,christ had taught me what to be1 ,that ,i should plow and as ,i plowed ,my ,saviour ,christ would sing aloud1 ,and as ,i drove the clods apart ,christ would be plowing in my heart1 ,through rest-harrow and bitter roots1 ,through all my bad life's rotten fruits4 ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and the ,widow in the ,bye ,street4 ,and so it is1 that beginning with his poems of youth1 ,john ,masefield starts out with a sympathetic social consciousness1 but nothing more apparently4 ,he brothers with the outcast and frankly prefers it4 ,then comes the great regenerating influence in his life1 which we surely find in his expression of faith that the soul is immortal1 and finally that upheaval which we call conversion with all of its incident steps from conviction of sin to repentance2 and then to the consciousness of forgiveness2 to the lighted mind and the lighted soul2 and then to the uprooting of evil and the planting of good in the soil of his life4 ,and so through ,saul ,kane we see ,john ,masefield and have an explanation of that subtle yet revolutionary change in his life and his poetry1 pregnant with illustrations that1 to quote another ,english poet1 ,noyes1 ,would make the dead arise6 ,,viii ,,robert ,,service1 ,,poet ,,of ,,virility ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from the following works3 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon2 ,rhymes of a ,red ,cross ,man1 published by ,barse ,hopkins1 ,new ,york2 ,rhymes of a ,rolling ,stone1 published by ,dodd1 ,mead ,co41 ,new ,york4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,high ,,peaks ,,and ,,high ,,hopes2 ,,of ,,white ,,snows ,,and ,,white ,,lives2 ,,of ,,sin ,,and ,,death2 ,,of ,,heaven ,,and ,,god ,a preacher once preached a sermon1 and in the opening moments of this sermon he quoted eight lines1 and a layman said at the conclusion of this sermon1 ,ah1 the sermon was fine1 but those lines that you quoted--they were tremendous2 they gripped me6 ,and those lines were from ,robert ,service1 the poet of the ,alaskan ice-peaks1 of the ,yukon's turbulent blue waters1 of the great silences1 of the high peaks and high hopes2 of men and gold and sin and death4 ,and the lines that gripped the layman were3 ,i've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow ,that's plumb-full of hush to the brim2 ,i've watched the big husky sun wallow ,in crimson and gold1 and grow dim2 ,till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming ,and the stars tumbled out neck and crop2 ,and ,i've thought that ,i surely was dreaming ,with the peace o' the world piled on top4 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,illustration3 ,,robert ,,service4 ,everything that the great northland holds was dear to him and clear to him and near to him4 ,he knew it all as intimately as a child knows his own backyard4 ,he makes it as dear and near and clear too1 to those who read3 ,the summer--no sweeter was ever1 ,the sunshiny woods all athrill2 ,the grayling aleap in the river1 ,the bighorn asleep on the hill2 ,the strong life that never knows harness1 ,the wilds where the caribou call2 ,the freedom1 the freshness1 the farness2 ,o ,god6 how ,i'm stuck on it all6 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,virile as the mountains that he has neighbored with2 clean as the snows that have blinded his eyes1 and made beautiful the valleys2 subdued to love of ,god through the height and the might of all that he sees1 with a vigor that shakes one awake1 he speaks1 not forgetting the pines2 for the pines are kith and kin to the mountains and the snows3 ,wind of the ,east1 wind of the ,west1 wandering to and fro1 ,chant your hymns in our topmost limbs1 that the sons of men may know ,that the peerless pine was the first to come1 and the pine will be the last to go4 ,sun1 moon1 and stars give answer2 shall we not staunchly stand ,even as now1 forever1 wards of the wilder strand1 ,sentinels of the stillness1 lords of the last1 lone land8 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,and these white peaks1 and these lone sentinels lift one nearer to ,god3 ,but the stars throng out in their glory1 ,and they sing of the ,god in man2 ,they sing of the ,mighty ,master1 ,of the loom his fingers span1 ,where a star or a soul is a part of the whole1 ,and weft in the wondrous plan4 ,here by the camp-fire's flicker1 ,deep in my blanket curled1 ,i long for the peace of the pine-gloom1 ,where the scroll of the ,lord is unfurled1 ,and the wind and the wave are silent1 ,and world is singing to world4 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,have you strung your soul to silence8 he abruptly asks in ,the ,call of the ,wild2 and again1 another searching query1 ,have you known the great ,white ,silence1 not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver8 7,eternal truths which shame our soothing lies47 ,and again another query that rips the soul open1 and that tears off life's veneer3 ,have you suffered1 starved1 and triumphed1 groveled down1 yet grasped at glory1 ,grown bigger in the bigness of the whole8 ',done things1' just for the doing1 letting babblers tell the story1 ,see through the nice veneer the naked soul8 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 and how his virile soul rings its tribute to the silent men who do things6--the kind that the world finds once in a century for its great needs3 ,the simple things1 the true things1 the silent men who do things--4 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,,sin ,,and ,,death ,the world is full of sin and death1 and the former is so often the father of the other4 ,service has seen this in the far1 hard1 cruel northland as no other can see it4 ,the hollowness of material things he learns from this land of yellow gold1 the very soul of the material quest of the world4 ,he learns that ,it isn't the gold that we're wanting1 so much as just finding the gold3 ,there's gold1 and it's haunting and haunting2 ,it's luring me on as of old2 ,yet it isn't the gold that ,i'm wanting ,so much as just finding the gold4 ,it's the great1 big1 broad land 'way up yonder1 ,it's the forests where silence has lease2 ,it's the beauty that thrills me with wonder1 ,it's the stillness that fills me with peace4 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,or another verse3 ,i wanted the gold1 and ,i sought it2 ,i scrabbled and mucked like a slave4 ,was it famine or scurvy--,i fought it2 ,i hurled my youth into a grave4 ,i wanted the gold1 and ,i got it-- ,came out with a fortune last fall-- ,yet somehow life's not what ,i thought it1 ,and somehow the gold isn't all4 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,who has not learned that8 ,thank ,god for the lesson6 ,too many of us hurl our youths1 aye1 our lives into the grave learning that1 and only come to know at last that ,joaquin ,miller was right when he said1 ,all you can take in your cold1 dead hand ,is what you have given away4 ,and how the warning against sin hurtles its way into your soul2 its grip2 its age2 its power3 ,it grips you like some kinds of sinning2 ,it twists you from foe to a friend2 ,it seems it's been since the beginning2 ,it seems it will be to the end4 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,sin is like that4 ,service is right6 ,sin lures1 and calls under the guise of beauty4 ,but sin1 as ,john ,masefield shows in ,the ,everlasting ,mercy1 is ugly4 ,in the modern word of the street ,sin will get you4 ,service says the same thing in ,it grips you4 ,,god ,,and ,,heaven ,maybe you have never thought of ,god as the ,god of the trails and ,alaskan reaches1 but ,service makes you see him as ,the ,god of the trails untrod in ,the ,heart of the ,sourdough4 ,he does not leave ,god out4 ,nor do these rough men of the avalanches1 the frozen rivers1 the gold trails1 which are death trails4 ,indeed1 these are the very men who know ,god1 for do not their ,lives just hang by a hair8 ,i knew it would call1 or soon or late1 as it calls the whirring wings2 ,it's the olden lure1 it's the golden lure1 it's the lure of the timeless things1 ,and to-night1 ,o1 ,god of the trails untrod1 how it whines in my heart-strings6 ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,this ,god leads to ,the ,land of ,beyond1 the heaven of the gold seeker3 ,thank ,god6 there is always a ,land of ,beyond ,for us who are true to the trail2 ,a vision to seek1 a beckoning peak1 ,a farness that never will fail2 ,a pride in our soul that mocks at a goal1 ,a manhood that irks at a bond1 ,and try how we will1 unattainable still1 ,behold it1 our ,land of ,beyond6 ,rhymes of a ,rolling ,stone4 ,and the northman cannot forget death1 as we have suggested1 because he is face to face with it all the time1 at every turn of a river2 at every jump from cake to floe1 at every step of every trail3 ,,just ,,think6 ,just think6 some night the stars will gleam ,upon a cold1 grey stone1 ,and trace a name with silver beam1 ,and lo6 'twill be your own1 ,that night is speeding on to greet ,your epitaphic rhyme4 ,your life is but a little beat ,within the heart of ,time4 ,a little gain1 a little pain1 ,a laugh lest you may moan2 ,a little blame1 a little fame1 ,a star-gleam on a stone4 ,rhymes of a ,rolling ,stone4 ,perhaps it is because the men of the north are always so near to death and so conscious of death that they hold to the strict ,puritanical rules of conduct that they do1 expressed in ,service's ,the ,woman and the ,angel1 that story of the ,angel who came down to earth and withstood all the temptations until he met the beautiful1 sinning woman1 and who was about to fall4 ,hear her tempt him3 ,then sweetly she mocked his scruples1 and softly she him beguiled3 ',you1 who are verily man among men1 speak with the tongue of a child4 ,we have outlived the old standards2 we have burst like an overtight thong ,the ancient outworn1 ,puritanic traditions of ,right and ,wrong4' ,then the ,master feared for ,his angel1 and called him again to ,his side1 ,for ,o1 the woman was wondrous1 and ,o1 the angel was tried6 ,and deep in his hell sang the devil1 and this was the strain of his song3 ',the ancient1 outworn1 ,puritanic traditions of ,right and ,wrong4' ,the ,spell of the ,yukon4 ,and ,i doubt not1 but that we all need that warning not to give up ,the ancient1 outworn1 ,puritanic traditions of ,right and ,wrong4 ,,rhymes ,,of ,a ,,red ,,cross ,,man ,here it is that we find a consciousness of the ,eternal creeping through the smoke and din and glare4 ,here1 like the hard1 dangerous life of the ,alaskan trails1 only harder and more dangerous2 here amid war in ,the ,fool we catch six last lines that thrill us3 ,he died with the glory of faith in his eyes1 ,and the glory of love in his heart4 ,and though there's never a grave to tell1 ,nor a cross to mark his fall1 ,thank ,god we know that he batted well ,in the last great ,game of all4 ,rhymes of a ,red ,cross ,man4 ,and even amid the terrible thunder of war the ,lark sings1 as ,service reminds us in his poem of that name1 sings and points to heaven3 ,pure heart of song6 do you not know ,that we are making earth a hell8 ,or is it that you try to show ,life still is joy and all is well8 ,brave little wings6 ,ah1 not in vain ,you beat into that bit of blue3 ,lo6 we who pant in war's red rain ,lift shining eyes1 see ,heaven too6 ,rhymes of a ,red ,cross ,man4 ,to close this study of ,service1 which has run from the hard battle ground of the ,alaskan trails to the harder battle ground of ,france2 which has run from a study of white peaks and white lives1 to high peaks and high hopes1 through sin and death to heaven and the ,father himself1 ,i quote the closing lines of ,service's ,the ,song of the ,wage ,slave1 which will remind the reader in tone and spirit of ,markham's ,the ,man with the ,hoe3 ,master1 ,i've filled my contract1 wrought in thy many lands2 ,not by my sins wilt thou judge me1 but by the work of my hands4 ,master1 ,i've done thy bidding1 and the light is low in the west1 ,and the long1 long shift is over--,master1 ,i've earned it--,rest4 ,illustration3 ,,rupert ,,brooke4 ,,ix ,,rupert ,,brooke ,footnote3 ,the poetical selections from the writings of ,rupert ,brooke appearing in this chapter are used by permission1 and are taken from ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke1 published by ,john ,lane ,company1 ,new ,york4 ,,preacher ,,of ,,friendship1 ,,love1 ,,country1 ,,gods1 ,,and ,,god ,wilfred ,gibson expressed it for us all2 voiced the sorrow and the hope in the death of ,rupert ,brooke1 a victim of the ,hun as well as that other giant of art1 the ,rheims ,cathedral2 expressed it in these lines written shortly after ,rupert ,brooke died3 ,he's gone4 ,i do not understand4 ,i only know ,that1 as he turned to go ,and waved his hand1 ,in his young eyes a sudden glory shone1 ,and ,i was dazzled by a sunset glow-- ,and he was gone1 ,thanks1 ,wilfred ,gibson1 you who have made articulate the voice of the downtrodden of the world1 the poetic ,fires which have lighted up with sudden glow the slums1 the slag heaps1 the factories1 the coal mines1 and hidden common ways of folks who toil2 thanks that you have also beautifully lighted up the ,end of the ,trail of your friend and our friend1 ,poet ,rupert ,brooke2 lighted it with the light that shines from eternity4 ,we owe you debt unpayable for that4 ,and you yourself1 war-dead poet1 you sang your end1 full knowing that it would come1 as it did on foreign soil1 far from the ,england that you loved and voiced so wondrously4 ,and now these lines that you wrote of your own possible passing have new meaning for us who remain to mourn your going3 ,if ,i should die1 think only this of me3 ,that there's some corner of a foreign field ,that is forever ,england4 ,there shall be ,in that rich earth a richer dust concealed2 ,a dust whom ,england bore1 shaped1 made aware1 ,gave1 once1 her flowers to love1 her ways to roam2 ,a body of ,england's breathing1 breathing ,english air1 ,washed by the rivers1 blest by suns of home4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,and so here1 even in this hymn of your passing1 you have given a striking illustration off one of your strongest characteristics1 love of homeland4 ,poet of ,youth who left us so early in life1 take your place along with ,byron1 and ,shelley1 and our own ,seeger--a quartette of immortals1 whose voices were heard1 but1 like the horns of ,elfland1 faintly blowing when they were hushed4 ,though you were but a youthful voice1 yet left you poetry worth listening to1 and preached a gospel that will make a better world1 though it had not gone far enough to save the world4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,friendship ,among the few definite1 outstanding gospels that ,brooke preached is seen the gospel of friendship4 ,in ,the ,jolly ,company he says3 ,o white companionship6 ,you only ,in love1 in faith unbroken dwell1 ,friends1 radiant and inseparable6 ,light-hearted and glad they seemed to me ,and merry comrades1 even so ,god out of heaven may laugh to see4-- ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,then1 again1 in a poem which he called ,lines ,written in the ,belief ,that the ,ancient ,roman ,festival of the ,dead ,was ,called ,ambarvalia1 he voices in an even more striking quatrain the immortality of friendship4 ,what a thrill of hope runs through us here as we1 who believe that life brings no richer gold than friendship1 read this poet's thought that friendship too shall last beyond the years6 ,and ,i know1 one night1 on some far height1 ,in the tongue ,i never knew1 ,i yet shall hear the tidings clear ,from them that were friends of you4-- ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,love ,and where ,friendship sweeps into love who shall tell1 or where the dividing line is8 ,but while ,brooks lived he forgot not love4 ,his was a throbbing1 beating love whose light was a beacon night and day2 a beacon of which he was not ashamed4 ,he set the fires of romantic love burning and when he went away he left them burning so that their light might light the way for other poets and other lovers and other travelers when they came4 ,he believed1 like ,noyes1 that love should not be weak2 that that was the great hope4 ,noyes said3 ,but one thing is needful1 and ye shall be true ,to yourselves and the goal and the ,god that ye seek2 ,yea1 the day and the night shall requite it to you ,if ye love one another if your love be not weak4 ,from ,collected ,poems of ,alfred ,noyes4 ,now ,i do not mean to suggest that the love that ,brooke sang was exactly the type that ,noyes sang in these four lines4 ,in fact1 one feels a difference as he reads the two ,english poets1 but they are alike in that each agreed that ,love should not be weak1 whatever it was4 ,brooke sang of romantic love1 high and holy as that is2 love of ,youth for ,maiden1 lad for lass1 and man for woman2 and thank ,god for the high clean song that he gave to it in such lines as in ,the ,great ,lover3 ,love is a flame2--we have beaconed the world's night4 ,a city3--and we have built it1 these and ,i4 ,an emperor3--we have taught the world to die4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,and again in that same great poem3 --,oh1 never a doubt but1 somewhere1 ,i shall wake1 ,and give what's left of love again1 and make ,new friends1 now strangers4444 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,love ,,for ,,one',s ,,country ,and who shall say where the line of cleavage is between that love which clings to ,friends2 and that greater or conjugal love which moulds man and woman into one2 and love for children1 blood of one's blood1 and love of country2 and love of ,god8 ,i say that those who are truly the great ,lovers of the world love all of these and that not one is omitted4 ,at least the truly great ,lovers have the capacity for love of all these types4 ,i have found no expression of paternal love in ,brooke1 for he had not come to that great experience of life before ,death claimed him4 ,and because ,death robbed him of that experience ,death robbed us of a rare interpretation of that special type of ,love4 ,but of all these other types which ,i have mentioned we have a clear expression in the slender volume of poems that he left us as our heritage from his estate4 ,and1 since we have already read one beautiful expression of this love for his country in the opening paragraphs of this chapter1 we will add here another stanza of that noble expression of his love for old ,england4 ,and think1 this heart1 all evil shed away1 ,a pulse in the eternal mind1 no less ,gives somewhere back the thoughts by ,england given2 ,her sights and sounds2 dreams happy as her day2 ,and laughter1 learnt of friends2 and gentleness1 ,in hearts at peace1 under an ,english heaven4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,what a voice for the times6 ,what a voice for ,america6 ,would that some ,american ,brooke might arise to sing this same deep song4 ,a ,,gospel ,,of ,,the ,,gods ,rupert ,brooke had a wide range of interests as indeed any great ,lover of ,life and living must have4 ,he expressed the hopelessness of the heathen gods in a poem which he called ,on the ,death of ,smet-,smet1 the ,hippopotomus-,goddess in lines that fairly sparkle with the electricity of destruction and sarcasm3 ,she was wrinkled and huge and hideous8 ,she was our ,mother4 ,she was lustful and lewd8--but a ,god2 we had none other4 ,in the day ,she was hidden and dumb1 but at nightfall moaned in the shade2 ,we shuddered and gave ,her ,her will in the darkness2 we were afraid4 7,the ,people without7 ,she sent us pain1 ,and we bowed before ,her2 ,she smiled again ,and bade us adore ,her4 ,she solaced our woe ,and soothed our sighing2 ,and what shall we do ,now ,god is dying8 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,and so it was that with the deepest sense of understanding1 with the deepest sympathy1 without intolerance ,brooke1 in this one verse sets the ,heathen gods where they belong and sets us where we belong in our relations to those who worship these gods and goddesses4 ,it is all they have4 ,we have no right to sneer and scorn until we are able to give them better4 ,these poor ,egyptians knew no other ,god4 ,they said plaintively but a ,god2 we have none other2 and ,and what shall we do now ,god is dying8 ,the crime of destroying faith in a lesser god until one has seen and can make seeable the real ,god is the greatest crime of civilization4 ,and to this writer's way of thinking there is no greater sin than that of ,intolerance2 a sin to which a certain portion of the institutionalized church is prone4 ,noyes shot the fist of indignation at this type of intolerance straight from a manly shoulder when he said3 ,how foolish1 then1 you will agree ,are those who think that all must see ,the world alike1 or those who scorn ,another who1 perchance1 was born ,where in a different dream from theirs ,what they called ,sin to him were prayers8 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,alfred ,noyes4 ,brooke saw the same thing and had great tolerance for those who worshipped the unknown gods2 worshipped the best they knew1 although it were a feeble worship4 ,he understood their outcry that they knew not what to do1 now that their god was dying3 ,she was so strong2 ,but death is stronger4 ,she ruled us long2 ,but time is longer4 ,she solaced our woe ,and soothed our sighing2 ,and what shall we do ,now ,god is dying8 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,one ,,god ,then sweeping upward1 although one must admit1 with groping1 reaching eagerness1 this young poet tried to find1 and at last did find1 the one ,god4 ,he mentions this ,god that he found more than any other one thing about which he wrote1 so far as ,i can find4 ,in one slender volume are more than a dozen striking references4 ,take for example the last fifteen lines of ,the ,song of the ,pilgrims3 ,o ,thou1 ,god of all long desirous roaming1 ,our hearts are sick of fruitless homing1 ,and crying after lost desire4 ,hearten us onward6 as with fire ,consuming dreams of other bliss4 ,the best ,thou givest1 giving this ,sufficient thing--to travel still ,over the plain1 beyond the hill1 ,unhesitating through the shade1 ,amid the silence unafraid1 ,till1 at some hidden turn1 one sees ,against the black and muttering trees ,thine altar1 wonderfully white1 ,among the ,forests of the ,night4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,or again1 from ,ambarvalia3 ,but laughing and half-way up to heaven1 ,with wind and hill and star1 ,i yet shall keep before ,i sleep1 ,your ,ambarvalia4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,immortality1 which goes hand in hand with the ,god of immortality1 the ,god of the ,everlasting ,arms1 is voiced in ,dining-,room ,tea1 a poem addressed to one whom he loved3 ,for suddenly1 and other whence1 ,i looked on your magnificence4 ,i saw the stillness and the light1 ,and you1 august1 immortal1 white1 ,holy and strange2 and every glint1 ,posture and jest and thought and tint ,freed from the mask of transiency1 ,triumphant in eternity1 ,immote1 immortal4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,then1 speaking of the war and peace with great yearning and great faith1 the young poet cried a new glory in what he calls ,god's ,hour in a poem on ,peace3 ,now1 ,god be thanked ,who has matched us with ,his hour1 ,and caught our youth and wakened us from sleeping1 ,with hand made sure1 clear eye1 and sharpened power1 ,to turn1 as swimmers into cleanness leaping4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,and who has not felt this1 but has not been able to thus express it8 ,and who has not seen that somehow1 strangely1 mysteriously1 wondrously1 the youth not only of ,england1 but of ,america has leaped to ,god's ,hour1 as ,brooke calls this war2 leaped from play1 and from listlessness in spiritual things2 leaped from indifference to things of the eternities2 leaped to a magnificent heroism1 selflessness1 sacrifice1 brotherhood2 leaped to a new and ,godlike nobility4 ,to all who mourn for their dead lads comes the cheering word of ,brooke1 who himself paid the great debt of love4 ,it comes out of a poem called ,safety4 ,read it1 you who mourn1 and be comforted3 ,dear6 of all happy in the hour1 most blest ,he who has found our hid security1 ,assured in the dark tides of the world that rest1 ,and hear our word1 ',who is so safe as we8' ',we have found safety with all things undying6' ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4 ,we have found safety with all things undying4 ,brooke heard ,god's word as did the prophet of old crying1 ,comfort ye1 comfort ye my people1 saith the ,lord1 and this sonnet comes as a personal message to mourning mother and father in ,america4 ,as they listen they hear the voices of those they loved crying3 ,who is so safe as we8 ,we have found safety with all things undying4 ,thank ,god that this poet1 though young1 lived long enough1 and saw enough of war and death to give this heartening word to a world which weeps and wearies with war and woe and want6 ,thus in this new immortality we shall ,learn all we lacked before2 hear1 know and say ,what this tumultuous body now denies3 ,and feel1 who have laid our groping hands away2 ,and see1 no longer blinded by our eyes4 ,the ,collected ,poems of ,rupert ,brooke4